Long Return
by AnneLea
Summary: Sakura is trapped when someone she does not expect comes to the rescue. What follows is twelve years of love and absence while being hunted from both within the walls of Konoha and from outside by much less direct means. SasuSaku NaruOC Lemon Pregnancy
1. In the Cold

Disclaimer and A/N: Seriously, if I owned Naruto, why would I post this stuff here? Yeah, and if I was making money off of it, same goes. So please, don't sue me for this. I just had a moment of sleepy inspiration one night when playing Sims and wondering how many kids I could make a family have. Then I wondered about the Narutoverse. What would it take to appease Sasuke's ideas of what it means to revive a clan. Surely he'd need more than one child, right? So... um... many ended up being the answer. Nine to be exact. Yeah, big family, but he's rich, he can afford it.

So, I humbly give to you this rendition of a way Sasuke would return home if I could have my way about things:

Sakura wiped away a crusted streak of blood from her shin with a damp cloth. Still two days away from the rendezvous point and now she might not be able to even walk the rest of the way within four days. The black haired bitch had landed a senbon right into her thigh, followed by another into her shin. It certainly didn't take long for the poison within to work, disabling Sakura's muscles in only a few seconds.

Someone else attacked the black haired woman then, buying Sakura the time she needed to make it into the shallow cave she had sheltered in the night before and back to her pack. She could hear that it was a man, and this man knew the woman that hat attacked Sakura, as well as Sakura herself. The man and Karin, as the woman's name turned out to be, argued as much as they fought.

"You touch her one more time and I will kill you, Karin!" the more familiar voice of the man called out to the woman he kept away from Sakura's position. "I told you that from the start. You leave Kakashi and his team to me! They are my problem to deal with, not yours!"

"I won't let her have you!" Karin screeched back, making yet another attempt to bypass the warmly dressed and cloaked man between herself and Sakura.

"You obsessive little bitch!" the man stepped into her path and threw a punch right at her face. Experienced with the man's styles, Karin dodged and swept at his feet, but failed to take him down.

Sakura gripped a kunai in each hand after pulling out the two senbon. She believed she knew who the man was, though they hadn't come so close in the past four years. Not since Konoha was put back on the map after associates of the very same man wiped it off in an all out attack. She hated this man now, after loving and hoping so long, all she could do was hope she had the physical strength to match her emotional anger towards him. It didn't matter that he was here now, protecting her. For all she knew, he only wanted to kill her himself.

Karin left after several more minutes of fighting. Neither of them used any special jutsu on one another. For the woman's reason, it was because she knew hers were not strong enough. For the man, Sakura knew, it was because of the drought. He specialized in fire and electricity, both of which would burn down the forest around their ears. Without any water, only air and earth were left to the combatants. Air would knock down the brittle, dead wood in ways they could not anticipate. Water would sit on top of the frozen ground and possibly freeze Sakura along with it, not to mention the lack of water in the land to use. Earth... Well, she was in a cave, no matter how shallow, and being enclosed there was not the ideal situation. Unable to best the man in these conditions, Karin left for the time being.

Sakura watched the man as he turned to face her, features still mostly hidden in his warm cloak. He did not come any closer to her, or back away even one step. He sat down on the cold, dry grass only about three yards from Sakura, he remained quiet, just watching as she gripped her weapons tightly and watched him in return.

"She won't be back on your trail for at least another day," he said, trying hard to be gentle in tone even though his throat was hurting from a blow Karin had landed earlier. He resisted the urge to rub at the spot, knowing Sakura might take the chance to throw one of her weapons at him.

"And you, Sasuke?" she asked through a cringe as feeling started to return to her leg. "How long are you going to trail me?"

"Until I'm certain she won't be a problem for you anymore," he replied. "She is my target, and you are hers. As long as you both are alive, I believe you will be her target. So, I will wait with you until she is confident enough again to try another tactic."

"Why do you care if she kills me or not?" Sakura asked pointedly.

"I could show you, but you won't believe it's real. I could tell you, but you'll fear me even more than if I showed you," he said, sitting just as still as before. "It can wait."

"For?"

"For you to trust me enough to let me in there with you. You do know it's actually colder out here in the wind than it is in there, right?"

"Yes."

"Then may I join you?"

"No."

"Even if I leave my things by the entrance?"

"No."

"I didn't think so."

"Then stop asking questions you already know the answers to," Sakura told him curtly, starting to loosen her grip on the kunai.

"I have food, if you're interested," Sasuke told her, making slow movements to bring his pack around and open it for her to see his stash of water and foods sitting below his weapons, using an extra set of clothing as a barrier between the items. "And I can make it hot without lighting a fire like you'd have to."

"Good for you, Sasuke," Sakura wrinkled her nose at him, jealous. "I think I'll survive with my own, though."

Sasuke set a little of his food out and repacked his things, ignoring her as she continued to stare in his direction while he added the needed water and used chakra to create a small fire off of his fingers under the metal cup, boiling the noodles. Sakura could smell Naruto's favorite brand of pre-packaged ramen coming into the cave with a gust of wind. She didn't know if it was on purpose, or if Sasuke just didn't remember or care about the memories it might bring back.

Instead of showing her own reactions, she set the Kunai to her sides and pulled out a package of jerky her father had given her before she left to rejoin her team on its current mission. It was a pack her father had made himself of the kinds she loved most, a mix of rabbit and deer. Sasuke recognized the packaging used and smiled. She always saved that one for times when she needed parental comfort or advice but had no access to them other than through someone like Kakashi. Her father cut and cured the meats, and her mother always packed tea flavors that would compliment the tastes, having grown much of the ingredients herself in their flower boxes or front yard. Sakura couldn't fully appreciate the tea now, though, not without a safe heat source, so she settled for just the meat alone.

"Aren't you thirsty, Sakura?" Sasuke asked, teasing. "What happened to your usual tea?"

"As if you don't already know," Sakura grumbled in reply.

"I can help you with it, you know," he suggested again. "Give you hot water, that is."

Sakura looked back out at him again. He hadn't moved from the spot, but he had finished his food and was huddled in his cloak, starting to shiver with the cold. He hadn't made a move to harm her personally, not even in the past when he could have done so more easily both with and without others present.

"Can you make something that won't spread or suffocate us in here?" she asked, hopeful.

"No," he replied, honestly upset that he couldn't do that. "I never remember knowing of anyone who could. The nature of fire, I'm afraid."

"Body warmth will be better than nothing. Come inside, and bring your things. They'll help hold in the heat."

He moved slowly, wary that she might still be on edge. He was right to think so. Sakura didn't relax at all when he sat down near her, putting his bag beside hers at the entrance to block out more of the cooler air. She kept her eyes on him the whole time, even as he reached out and took the water out of her hands to pour it into his metal cup and heat it like he had his own. She accepted the water, then fished out the tea by touch only, her eyes staying on his hands. He nearly laughed at her. Was she afraid he was going to use dojutsu?

"What are you smiling about?" she snapped at him, dropping the tea into the water to steep.

"Have you got eyes in the back of your head now, too?" he asked, surprised.

"I'm around kids a lot lately," she answered. "Take care of them long enough, and you tend to get extra senses."

"So I've heard."

She waited, still, sipping at her still steeping tea. "Well?"

"It's a temporary truce, Sakura," he told her. "You don't have to keep from looking at my eyes. I'm not going to use them on you."

"Liar."

"You're awfully cold towards me lately," he said, bringing his legs in to his body to set his chin on his knees. "For the past eight times we've met, actually. What's that been, then... Three--four years?"

"Four years."

"I hear Naruto has a son. Is that the child you've been around that's given you extra eyes?"

"Yes. His boy gives me hell sometimes. Terrible twos going into terrible threes."

He'd lied about hearing Naruto was a father. The truth was, he'd heard Sakura had a son. Yet, he didn't hear any lie in her voice when she answered. So, Naruto was the father. That was a little confusing to him, though. She'd never given Naruto the time of day in the past. Now she was raising his son.

"I hope he has your eyes," Sasuke told her, letting her know that he knew the whole truth. "That way, when he gets older, there'll be something to tell him appart from his father. If he's got your hair, I pity the child, though."

"I never said it was my child," she glared at him, finally meeting his eyes. "And he's not."

"Not what I've been told."

"You weren't told everything then," Sakura shot back. "I did cary him until birth, but he's not my child. The real mother died two months pregnant thanks to that bitch from earlier. What does she want with me anyway?"

He wondered who the biological mother could have been. Not Hinata, certainly. She would have passed out the minute Naruto suggested sex, and Naruto wouldn't have taken her when she was like that. He didn't have time to think on it much more, though. Sakura was waiting for another answer. This was one he didn't want to give.

"She's jealous of you," he said lowly. "She wants me. She even tried to rape me once."

"Then why be after me? It's not like I ever got anything from you."

A smirk played at the corners of his lips. "She thinks you did."

"I don't see why," Sakura handed him his cup back, tea finished.

"I told her you and I were secretly lovers after I killed Orochimaru and you all caught up to me the first time," he shrugged. "I thought it would put her off of me, not send her after you. I'm sorry for that."

"Gee, thanks, I feel so much better you nearly got me killed by lying poorly," Sakura grouched, kicking him in the shin without the aid of chakra to make it break.

Sasuke pulled his cloak back around his legs again. Even in the sheltered area, body warmth wasn't exactly enough to raise the temperature enough to be comfortable.

"Let me see your throat," Sakura said after a moment. "I know she got you good there at least once."

"What are you going to do?" he asked, lifting his head anyway.

"What needs to be done to keep it from bruising," she replied, taking off her gloves. "It's obvious nothing more is wrong, or you wouldn't be talking."

ああああああああああああああああああ

Tenzou was starting to get on Kakashi's nerves. Bored from lack of anything to do since the mission itself fell through two days before, Tenzou had taken to randomly prodding the rest of them with thorns to fill the time they waited for Sakura to return before moving on to the next location. It was amusing to watch Naruto's reactions the first five or six times. Even more so to watch Sai try to ignore the sharp little pains for the first eight. When a sharp prick caught him in the butt, however, Kakashi drew the line. It was one thing to prick an arm, foot, back, or side. It was another to go for semi private parts. There was no way in hell he was going to let it get any farther.

"Knock it off already, kohai," Kakashi told him in a bored tone. To be angry outwardly would only egg Tenzou on.

"But you were having so much fun earlier, senpai," Tenzou pretended to pout.

"It's getting old now," Kakashi replied, relaxing onto his sleeping bag.

Tenzou gave him a cursory prick in the shoulder before getting up and stretching out.

"I wonder what's taking Sakura so long," Naruto spoke up, stirring his food listlessly. "She said she'd be back today."

"She has a week left, Naruto," Kakashi reminded. "Besides, she did send word she'd be a day or two late anyway."

"She was supposed to be here three days ago originally," Sai reminded. "She should be here by now."

"Unlike you, senpai, Sakura has a thing for staying on time," Tenzou teased.

"Forgetting so soon who taught you to get up at the crack of dawn?" Kakashi turned an eye on him, pointedly. "If she isn't here by morning, we'll track her down. It's too nasty out there right now to even think about trying to find her."

Indeed, looking out the door, the other three noticed that the whipping winds had brought in clouds. Those clouds were beginning to release their load of wet snow, breaking the drought and the worry of setting everything in the area on fire. Finally, they could have some heat.

ああああああああああああああああああ

Sakura felt herself beginning to doze off as the sun set. Her leg was still immobile, but topical feeling was beginning to return. Satisfied that the poison would not last for more than the one night, she allowed herself to relax a bit, momentarily forgetting her company. Jerking herself awake again, she realised Sasuke was gone. More still, a blanket of white was thickening on the ground outside as the white shower piled wet snow on wet snow. By morning, it would all be hardened into a king of honey comb of ice and air. She would need her leg in perfect working order before traveling again, or every movement would be noisy with crunching without the use of chakra to walk on the fragile icy top of the falling snow.

"Damn it," she cursed into the air, checking her leg again. Her toe twitched a little, a good sign.

Wood--sticks and a couple good sized logs -- dropped from over the mouth of the small cave to the ground of the entrance, startling her. She grabbed the first thing that came to her hand and held it close to her chest, ready to lash out. The intruder leaned over the entrance and looked at her with a light smirk.

"Sakura-san, you don't have to attack me with my own sword today," Sasuke told her. "I thought it would be a good idea to take advantage of the change in weather and make a fire. Interested?"

"Definitely," she sighed, dropping the weapon back to her side where he had left it lying.

Sasuke flipped down to the other side of the pile and started separating the wood into sizes before setting up the beginnings of a pit, lining it with rocks a shadow clone brought, and filling it with kindling a second clone brought. The two clones went out for more wood while he got the first bit started up and then came back into the relative safety of the cave, fire starting to take even though the wood was damp. One lone drop of blood dripped from an eye.

"What happened?" Sakura asked, reaching out to wipe away the blood out of habit more than anything else.

"Itachi," was Sasuke's blank faced reply. "He pushed me very hard the day he died. He gave me a gift, but it's been a bit of a curse, too."

"You gained mangekyou," she realised.

"Yes," he nodded.

Sakura thought for a moment. Her instinct was to examine his eyes and do what she could to help him with the wounds. Yet, even though she had done so with Kakashi a few times, his injuries were different. The situation was different, too. Technically, Sasuke was an enemy of Konoha. Healing him would be an act of treason. There was also the fact that he might not allow her to even look at it. He had every right to mistrust her intentions. For every good she could do him, she could also hurt him. Most would use the chance to do so if they could. Many would tell her she should.

She dismissed even offering. It wasn't worth the risk.

"Don't worry about it," Sasuke told her, shaking her out of her thoughts.

"Hmm?" Sakura asked, turning her head sharply to him. "What?"

"I only use it when absolutely needed," he replied, raising a finger to point at his eyes. "I don't want to end up like him--blind as a bat."

"It won't take much more pushing if you aren't careful," she told him, unable to stop herself before the warning was out.

"How would you know?"

"Kakashi. I treat him now and then when he goes too far. If I didn't... He would have lost the eye three years ago at least."

"I see," he nodded then returned to stoking the fire. "We'll share bedding tonight if you don't mind. I don't think this will be enough for the night, and I'm not sure it's a good idea even to send clones out for more with the way the wind has picked up."

"I promise not to poison you in your sleep," she tried for a joke, but it sounded bad even to her ears. "Well, I promise not to kick anyway."

Unconsciously, she rubbed at fading bruises on her shins where Naruto's son had kicked her in his own sleep several days before.

"What is his name?" Sasuke asked, turning back to her.

She knew who he meant. "Tsuyomi."

"I doubt Naruto is at home with him and letting you come out here on your own. Who is watching him?"

"His step-mother," Sakura smiled at the thought. Tsuyomi may have lost his biological mother, but he had two others to look after him in return. She--Sakura--and Yashu. "She's having trouble getting one of her own, so it's good he already has Tsuyomi to carry on the family name."

"What does Hinata think of all this?"

"Hinata is dead, Sasuke. She's Tsuyomi's biological mother."

Sasuke shut his mouth at that. He didn't know the Hyuuga heiress very well as a child, but he did remember how she had pined for Naruto, and how she became even slightly stronger because of him. He had liked her quiet determination, even if her unwillingness to act boldly on her own wants was her major draw back. To think she had finally gotten Naruto, was going to have his child too, and died so young... He pitied her memory.

"Yashu is good to him, though he still calls me his Kaa-san half the time," Sakura sighed. "He confuses everybody with that, but we all love him just the same."

"He sounds blessed to have an extra parent that cares so much for him," Sasuke told her instead. "And you sound like you truly care for him. He must be very special."

"He is... I carried him, and gave birth to him, and fed him from my own breast. He might as well be my biological son. I love him like he is... After all, I might not have any others. Everybody else I'd consider having a child by is either taken or incapable due to injury. Poor Shino... He really wanted to have more kids after Mikoto. His wife was devastated, too. She had just lost a little boy when Shino returned."

More heartache in Konoha. Not what he wanted to hear, but what he needed to know anyway. These little side tracks Sakura got off onto gave him the news he would have to ask for otherwise.

ああああああああああああああああああ

"What is he doing?" Tenzou asked Kakashi, pointing a finger at Naruto.

Kakashi looked over at the oddly quiet blond and recognised the poise and relaxed posture automatically. "Meditating. Drawing on nature. Jiraiya-sama did that often when trying to figure things out. Maybe he's trying to get an idea of what's going on with Sakura."

"He's barely even breathing, Senpai. Is that safe?"

"He'll be fine. The less he moves even his lungs and heart, the easier it is to pick up on nature's chakra or something like that. I don't know. Ask him, he's the Sage."

"Just don't ask him now," Sai stepped into their conversation. "If he is getting anything like he did that one time, you're in danger if you disturbe him."

"Hai... he did nearly kill you that one time, didn't he, Sai?" Kakashi asked.

Sai nodded, and retrained his eyes on the blond of their group. He liked Naruto better this way. Quiet and still were things the blond needed to master if he wanted to grow as a person as well as a shinobi.

Naruto, however, was completely blocking out the conversation and movements around him as he sat on the floor, legs crossed, and wrists resting lightly on his knees. He did not feel the warmth of the fire, or the coolness of the air to his back. He did not care for them at the moment. Every time that he had been still for the past few hours, something seemed to be nagging at the back of his mind, like it wanted for him to remember something he'd never experienced to start with.

Giving in, he had sat up and took the position he currently held and relaxed each muscle methodically, slowing and deepening his breaths until even he couldn't tell when one ended and the next began, forcing his heart to slow in its beating as well before allowing the outside forces to flow straight through him. Only when he started searching the tendrils of information around him did he pick up on the stronger thread that had been touching at the back of his mind. Sakura.

_Sakura had crow's feet starting to show up at the corners of her eyes, and laugh lines at the corners of her mouth. Stress marked her forehead with even more, and strands of silver started to shine brighter than the pink of her hair._

_As the sight of her pulled back and allowed him to see the rest of the room, Naruto saw that she was braiding long, dark brown hair. The hair belonged to a black eyed girl sitting sideways in a chair who was doing the same to an older girl with medium length red hair. On the other end of the table, two boys--one red haired and one black haired--played with their pencils like they were kunai._

_Three other boys--two of them about the red haired girl's age and one younger than the boys playing with pencils--came running through the room after a garden snake that had made it's way into the house and was now trying to avoid being stomped on by the fast feet behind it. Sakura, one of the girls, and the other two boys started at the sight. The red-haired girl, however, took off after her brothers and scooped up the youngest, chiding him for chasing after something that could hurt him._

_"But it's not poisonous!" the boy cried, kicking and squirming in her grip._

_"It doesn't matter, Suisei!" the girl replied. "What happens if it actually is? You don't have the same resistance the rest of us do."_

_"But it's not, Akaiko-nee-chan! I'm the one who summoned it!"_

_"You what?!?" Sakura demanded, eyes widened. "When? How? Why?"_

_"Usagi-nii showed me how to do it._ I wanted to show you, but it got away..."

_"NEVER summon another snake in this house again, Suisei!" Sakura shook her finger at the boy. "And you, Usagi, should know better than to go teaching your brother things you picked up from your father on the fly just because you like to flaunt how soon you got your Sharingan. Do you hear me?"_

_"Hai, Kaa-san," said boy hung his head, managing to get hit on it by the other boy's pencil._

_"Good. Now get back to your homework and stop trying to give each-other lead-poisoning. I won't be able to take much more of you two trying to kill one another while I'm pregnant with these two _and_ worrying about the terms of your father's release riding on Neji's shoulders."_

_Naruto saw now, that Sakura rubbed a hand over her swollen belly. He knew for sure there was more than one child involved with this pregnancy. It seemed that at least two other times had been multiples judging by the apparent ages of the other children. Sakura had definitely gotten the big brood she'd mentioned wanting a few months after Tsuyomi's birth._

_A knock came at the door, and the dark haired girl jumped away from her mother's unfinished braiding to pull it open. In came a blond haired-opal eyed young man with a letter addressed to Sakura._

_"Hi, Nami-nee-chan. Is Kaa-san around? Tou-san sent this for her."_

_"In the diningroom, Tsuyomi-nii-chan," Nami waved him in with a smile. "Is it about my Tou-san?"_

_"Sorry, I don't know yet."_

_"What's the occasion, Tsuyomi-kun?" Sakura greeted her very first born with a hug and a kind smile before accepting the letter. "What's this?"_

_"From Tou-san," the young man replied, his smile falling a little. "It might be best if the kids don't hear yet though."_

_"It's not about Sasuke, is it?" she asked, hand trembling a little._

_"No," he shook his head in the negative._

_Sakura carefully opened the letter, then gained a huge grin a second after her nerves calmed down. "You little liar! This is wonderful! I can't believe it finally happened! Who else knows?"_

_"You're the first person we told," Tsuyomi grinned at her. "After all, if it wasn't for you, she wouldn't be pregnant, would she?"_

_"Still, it was such a long shot at best--Oh my Kami I'm so happy for your Tou-san and Yashu! They're sure it's twins?"_

_"Almost positive," Tsuyomi replied. "I'm going to be a big brother by blood now, too!"_

_The group was interrupted briefly as two dark haired boys came back through the room with a snake in hand and marched right up to Suisei._

_"What happened?" Tsuyomi asked, but Sakura's answer was cut off by one of the boys._

_"Dismiss it, Suisei. Right now." The boy holding the snake demanded._

_"But—I don't know how!" Suisei cringed, trying to hide into the wall._

_"We can't let it live if he doesn't get rid of it..." the other boy muttered to his nearly identical brother._

_"I know..."_

_"Oh, give it here, I'll do it... bakas," the red haired girl snatched the snake out of her brother's hands and made a couple half seals with the other, dismissing the creature._

Naruto opened his eyes as the images started to fade away. So, Sakura was going to end up having a bunch of children by Sasuke, if what he saw was correct. And Yashu... There really was hope. Naruto let his nearly forgotten smile return in full force as the thoughts started to come together. Sasuke was coming home at some point. Tsuyomi would be a big brother to both his own flesh and blood as well as Sakura's children. Some things were looking up after all.

"What's with you?" Kakashi's voice broke his trail of thought.

"If you think Sakura's got it bad with Tsuyomi...just wait," Naruto winked at him.

"Hmm? You figure out a way to get her pregnant without your wife killing you?" Sai asked.

"What?" Naruto's eyes widened. "That's not what I meant at all! It's Sasuke! He's the one that's gonna have freaking ten children with her, not me!"

"I'm sure you only just had some weird day-dream or something..." Tenzou commented.

"No," Naruto shook his head. "Definitely not a day-dream."


	2. Wounded

Sakura pulled the blanket over her head to keep in more warmth, inadvertently pulling it off of Sasuke's side in the process. Mostly asleep himself, Sasuke jerked the blanket back, pulling it completely off of Sakura. She sat up in frustration and glared down at him.

"Hey, teme, I need that, too, you know," she tapped him roughly on the shoulder.

"Hmm?" Sasuke turned over onto his back to look up at her groggily.

"This isn't working. The blankets aren't large enough for us both to lay like this."

Sasuke looked over the size of the blanket again, seeing that it was completely wrapped around himself. "Kuso... Fine, lay back down on your side."

She gave him a quizzical look. "How's that going to help?"

"Just do it," he rolled his eyes.

Sakura grunted and flopped back down with her back to him, only to find that the blanket was back over her again, along with his arm. Sasuke was cuddling with her, actually spooning her in order to keep them both under the covers.

"Don't get any ideas, Sakura," he muttered into the back of her neck. "I'm just doing this to keep you from killing me for being a blanket hog."

"Self preservation is one of the best motivators, I've heard," Sakura smirked, but resisted the urge to hold the hand draped over her waist.

"Just shut up and go to sleep already, will you?" Sasuke grumbled, ending the fight to keep his eyes open and letting out a tired sigh.

As much as she wanted to stay awake and burn the feeling of this moment into her memory forever, the rhythmic breathing of her unexpected bedmate began to lull her into relaxation and eventually sleep.

Sasuke's drowsiness the following morning put him off his guard as his usually vigilant mind tried to process his surroundings before his eyes even opened. His back was definitely cooler than his front, his arm was draped over something soft, and his left leg was trapped between two warm, strong objects. It took a moment to realise the warm and soft thing his body was pressed against was a person, for it did have a pattern of rising and falling along with the sound of deep, relaxed breaths, and the only thing besides a good fire that could have this much warmth radiating off of it was another living creature.

A hand clasped his to the person's petite and toned stomach lightly. He felt that it might be a bad idea to have the other person wake up like this, and decided to try and disentangle himself at least slightly. It didn't work however, as the person then took a firmer hold of his hand and pulled it up to their chest. Now Sasuke knew it was definitely a woman that had him trapped, as there were definitely breasts beneath the three layers or so that she wore, not to mention the roundness of her hips pressed into his front giving things away further as she shifted even more in her sleep.

Briefly, he worried that Karin had managed to drug him, and that it was she he lay curled around under these blankets on a hardened ground. Opening an eye, however, the filtered sunlight showed him something different from what he expected. The woman's hair was not long and black like Karin's, but short and pale. The actual color was hard to distinguish due to the three blankets diffusing the light and casting a blue tint to everything he could make out. It looked purple in this light, a very pale purple. Take away the blue and that would leave...red. Pale red meant pink.

Sasuke only knew a couple of people with pink hair, and only one of them was a woman.

"Sakura?" he asked out loud, unsure if it was really true.

"Ohayo, Sasuke," she yawned back at him, tugging his arm up a bit more until his knuckles were pressed to her lips and his elbow sat directly between her breasts.

He knew it was only a reflexive motion, one he himself might have made had their positions been reversed. Still, his body stiffened. All she had to do was give him one good jerk, and his arm would be out of socket. Yep, he certainly hadn't dreamed fighting Karin off and getting invited into this damned little cave by Sakura the day before.

"Sakura that's my hand," he pointed out, hoping she would get the hint.

"Hmm?" she asked, turning her head to face him. Obviously, she had started to drift off again durring his hesitation. His palm was now against her cheek, almost as if he'd meant to caress her.

"Can I have my hand and leg back?" he asked, giving a slight pull with both to let her know what he meant.

"Oh, sorry... I'm still just so cold. Aren't you?"

Cold? Was she kidding? Sure the air outside these blankets would be bitter, but under them all was nearly too hot to handle. That's when he saw it, the light sheen of sweat on her face, the redness of her eyes, and he could even hear a little bit of a wheeze to her voice.

"Sakura, I think you're sick," he informed her, pressing the back of his free hand to her forehead only to pull it away quickly. She had scorched him! Her fever was far too high. It might cause brain damage if he couldn't bring her temperature back down. "You're burning up."

"Damn it," she cursed, throwing the blankets back and looking at her leg for signs of infection. Sure enough, the one on her shin was oozing green puss. Hiking her skirt up farther, she saw that the one in her thigh wasn't much better. "How?... It was just simple muscle relaxers... That's what I thought it was!"

Sasuke watched as she riffled through her pack, savagely ripping open gausses and creams. Next came a small metal cup and similar sized bottle of alcohol. Sakura used her chakra to drain the puss from each wound and dump it into the cup along with some blood and rotten skin and muscle tissue. It filled nearly to the brim, almost making him sick with both the sight and the smell. Next she practically poured the whole bottle of rubbing alcohol into each hole, stifling cries of pain by biting down on the empty gauss wrappers as the gauss itself was wrapped tightly around each area and tapped in place before being wrapped with pressure bandages. Sakura was quick, efficient, and precise with each movement, knowing that nothing less was acceptable.

"Do you think you can walk?" he dared to ask.

"I can't risk it," Sakura replied, voice heavy with frustration. She went more carefully through her pack now, finding a bottle of antibiotics and popping one large pill. "If I do, the infection will definitely rebuild itself and get into my bloodstream if it hasn't already. You might as well leave me here for the others to find. I'm not going anywhere on my own power, and I doubt you'd be willing to take me anywhere that can treat this better than I can here."

ああああああああああああああああああ

"She was definitely here," Kakashi muttered, picking up a pink hair from the back of a small cave. He spotted another, black hair near-by. "And someone else with dark hair was with her."

"One of them is either sick or wounded," Tenzou gestured to a small lump of brownish green outside that looked rotten and smelled worse. "Most likely wounded. I've never seen anything like that come up from the stomach of a human."

"The dark haired one must be a man..." Naruto stood up from where he studied tracks in the snow, "and he's carrying Sakura. She must be the wounded one."

"Senbon," Sai carefully held up the two sharp objects for the others to see. "Hollowed out. Bloody."

"That explains the injury," Kakashi sighed. "Naruto, which direction and how fast?"

"Back the way Sakura came, and pretty fast considering the man isn't a shinobi. He's going completely on foot and on the ground."

"She's got to be in bad shape then."

"That's what it looks like."

"Can we catch them?" Sai asked Kakashi, dropping the two senbon.

Kakashi looked at the little amount of snow that had fallen into the unknown man's footprints. "About two hours gone. We can catch them in twenty minutes if we push it."

"Then let's go!" Naruto shot off, leading the way as he kept an eye on the original trail.

Naruto darted ahead of the people below him to drop down before them on the ground. With the speed the man was using while carrying Sakura, Naruto didn't want to foot race to catch up and tell him to stop. The plan backfired, though, as it was bound to do. The man stopped right in his tracks and fell backwards onto Sakura, landing them both in the snow and pressing an arm into Sakura's wounded leg.

"Damn it, Naruto!" Sakura cursed at him as the man rolled off her and looked up at him with a slight bit of fear in his eyes.

Naruto met the dark brown eyes of the long black pony-tailed man for a brief moment, trying to convey an apology as he jogged up to Sakura and knelt down to take her beating. The beating never came though, and he didn't understand why.

"Sakura-chan, what's going on?" he asked, concerned.

"Bad infection," she moaned out, pointing to the tourniquet around leg. "I don't have the energy to suppress it."

"Then who are you?" Naruto asked, looking back up at the man quickly.

"Urami Sagimaru," the man replied, staying back a bit, then turning his head to see that Kakashi, Tenzou, and Sai had all appeared now. "These the people you told me about, Sakura-san?"

"Hai," Sakura nodded weakly. "My teammates."

"Who's he?" Tenzou gestured to the unknown person.

"Urami Sagimaru," Naruto answered pointedly. "He was just getting around to telling us how he met Sakura-chan."

"We shouldn't be out in the open like this," Sagimaru told them. "Sakura-san was attacked by another kunoichi who uses poisons."

"You sure didn't mind leaving a trail for her to follow," Kakashi noted. "We picked it up without a hitch."

"I didn't have much choice!" Sagimaru practically shouted, then brought his voice back down again. "She needs medical attention as fast as possible, and told me to start off in this direction. It's not like I can cover my tracks when I'm carrying someone else and both our supplies on my back!"

"Kakashi-sensei, please," Sakura turned her head to face her captain, "we don't have time to fight this out. Sagimaru risked his life to try and get me somewhere safe. I think that makes him trustworthy enough for the time being, don't you?"

"You must be really out of it, Sakura, not to notice the fact he's using a henge to hide his real appearance," Kakashi raised a hand, "KAI!"

Sasuke tried to hold the transformation jutsu against Kakashi's release command, but it failed when the older man pressed more power than expected into the release. Cursing, he fell into a defensive stance, pulling out his sword in the process.

"Looks like Naruto was on to something the other night after all," Tenzou commented, drawing a kunai.

"Don't attack him!" Sakura tried to yell at them. "He really was trying to help."

"And that's why you left such an easy trail?" Kakashi replied with full sarcasm. "I doubt it. Maybe the person using those senbon is a terrible tracker and you wanted to leave a trail for her?"

"At least you're not accusing me of hurting Sakura," Sasuke replied, smiling inside. "Seems like you don't think of me as less than trash anymore."

"Don't quote people you've never met," Kakashi hissed, lunging.

"Kakashi, don't!" Sakura pleaded in time with Naruto's "Leave him alone! He's going to come home on his own!"

Sasuke easily avoided the attack, striking out with a punch to Kakashi's kidneys. He, too, missed his mark when Kakashi spun around with a back-fist aimed at Sasuke's head. This dance continued for several seconds more, until both were being held back by the hands of friends.

"What are you doing, Tenzou?" Kakashi demanded, finding himself knee deep in earth and arms restrained by twisted wood.

"Let go of me you idiot!" Sasuke sneered, knowing by instinct who had him pinned to the ground, arms behind his back and legs held down by strong knees. His whole body was arched like a bow, Naruto the string holding him in the uncomfortable shape.

"Will both of you please desist the needles fighting?" Sai asked, kneeling by Sakura's side. "Sasuke-san had the correct idea of taking her back towards Konoha. Sakura is dying, and all your commotion is only upsetting her and helping the sickness to worsen through her heightened stress levels."

"He's right, senpai," Tenzou agreed. "If what Naruto said the other night is true, this is completely pointless. We need to focus on saving the one that needs out help the most right now. That is not Uchiha Sasuke."

Naruto eased his grip on Sasuke slightly. Glad that the man under him had still not electrocuted him senseless as he usually at least attempted once durring their brief meetings, Naruto let go fully and stood to the side, guard still slightly up out of habit.

"If she dies because of this," Sasuke spoke evenly, pushing himself to stand up again and dust off the wet snow clinging to the front of his clothes, "it won't just be Karin on my list. I'll kill you, too, Kakashi. You're the only reason she isn't already home. You're the one who had to read too much into things when you saw us and wanted to see if I really was just some random hunter. It's your fault if she dies, because you didn't believe her."

With that, Sasuke was gone from their sight and range of senses.

ああああああああああああああああああ

Tsunade set the freshly emptied bottle of water on her desk as gently as the muscle spasms in her arm would allow. The medicine wouldn't take effect for some minutes, yet, but she flet better just having them in her body now. Shizune's young assistant, Yashu, locked eyes with her, showing her worry plainly. Tsunade fought back a cringe. Naruto sure had picked the most open of women to end up with, even among the civillian side of the village. Yashu was a possible liability for the blond shinobi. If Tsunade was going to go through with her plans, this slight woman before her would have to survive more than Shizune's tests.

Yashu had to prove herself to be as strong as Naruto, perhaps even stronger. If she didn't pass, Naruto would have to choose between his wife or becoming Hokage. Tsunade didn't want to make him choose, and had thus suggested Shizune begin preparing the girl for what was to come.

"Hokage-sama," Yashu bowed courteously, then waited patiently with her arms behind her back, ancles together.

"Has Shizune told you of my decision regarding you and your husband?" Tsunade asked, looking back down at her desk.

"Hai."

Tsunade heard the hesitation in the woman's voice and sighed inside. The girl would say she was ready. Shizune might even vouch for her. Truth was, there was no making this innocent woman ready. She may have been like a little sister to her cousin Tenzou, and she may have talent with submission jutsu the way he did, but the load of being married to someone with such political power on top of physical power was most likely too much for her. Yet, something nagged at her, telling her that Yashu would want to try and sway the council in Naruto's favor beyond her own means.

"I don't intend to play any part in the council," Yashu surprised Tsunade. "I'm not the one you've chosen to succeed you, and none of the others are stepping down and offering their places to me. I just want to make sure Naruto has somewhere he can come to relax and throw off those issues at the end of the day. I want to know what's going on, but not by force. I know it's not proper for a civillian to know everything that goes on in the ninja world. Naruto and I already had our fights about that."

"And why have you backed off?" Tsunade asked, curious about how Naruto had handled the situation as well as how Yashu had.

"He showed me how easily I could be made to talk," Yashu replied honestly, ashamed and blushing as she looked down to the floor.

"Did he use force?"

"NO!" Yashu's head snapped up, eyes wide in shock that Tsunade would suggest such a thing.

"Through sex then," Tsunade decided, smirking.

"No," Yashu replied, more in controle of herself again. "We just talked, and he brought up situations that might come up. I understand that people will target me to get to him, but less so if they realise I don't have anything to offer them."

"You will always have something to offer them, Yashu," Tsunade reminded. "That is, unless you're telling me you and Naruto only married because you both wanted Tsuyomi to have a better family life?"

A knock sounded on the door before Yashu could answer.

"Come in," Tsunade grunted at the guard on the other side. Four men filed into the office. Two passed Yashu up with nothing more than a friendly nod before falling into place before the desk. One patted the brunette girl on the shoulder lightly before joining the first two. The last literally swung Yashu around in a circle before setting her down on her feet again and kissing her senseless, ignoring his duty from the second he saw her there.

"What's this all about?" Yashu asked, grinning despite herself.

"Oh, nothing," Naruto lied obviously, caressing his wife's cheek before taking his place beside Kakashi.

ああああああああああああああああああ

Sakura was home again, but forbidden to do anything much beyond her daily therapy in the way of physical exertion. Yashu had offered to check in on Sakura every afternoon the moment she heard what had happened. That was fine while Sakura was in the hospital, but not when she was at home now. Someone needed to stay with her at all hours to bring her things, do chores, help her move from one room to another, and make sure she didn't try to jump the gun on any physical activities as well as direct her chakra to do anything other than aid the healing process.

The poison which had been used as a back-up tactic should the user not finish off the victim durring the fight was an insidious one. First, it would attack your immune system, then turn into a chakra-eating bacteria six hours later. It would work its way towards the internal organs as fast as possible, feeding on both flesh and energy until the victim was dead.

Sakura's skin had been the first to show signs of the problems coming. With her long and heavy clothing constantly brushing other bruises, her wounds hadn't felt like much at the time. By the hour she fell asleep, her muscles were being attacked. When Sasuke had woken her, the infection had spread to her bloodstream, traveling to the rest of her major organs. When she had been rushed into the hospital, her lungs were failing.

Sai had been the first consensus, except his exams for ANBU Captain status were coming up. That automatically knocked out either Kakashi or Tenzou. One of them would have to help Sai out in the meantime. Both were offering to help there long before Sakura's injury and had been taking turns for about a month. Naruto was going to be taking tests as well, only on a wholly different subject. The seal on his stomach was changing every few weeks lately, and that troubled everyone in the know. It wasn't that the seal changed shape, grew, or shrank. It neither faded or darkened, either, and it most certainly wasn't changing color or anything like that. No, the very characters were being re-written, and all in the Yondaime's style of both handwriting and speech pattern. The very function of the seal seemed to be changing. Some times, it would only allow healing, and others for the Kyuubi's power to mix with Naruto's, and every time it changed, Naruto could feel it, like an itch but different.

Kakashi, having spent much of his time studying Yondaime's seal even as it was first being formed, was elected to stay with Naruto. Sai had asked for Naruto to aid in his testing, meaning Kakashi would be the one to judge and critique Sai's abilities and decision making skills. With that, Tenzou was left open for all but his one date at the hospital for an anual physical.

_"Good, then you can bring Sakura in with you for a check in on the official records when you get your physical," Tsunade said, accepting the situation._

_"But, Hokage-sama, wouldn't it be better if someone more qualified--" Tenzou began to protest._

_"More qualified in what respect?" Tsunade asked, taken back that he would refuse. It wasn't that she wasn't open to not appointing him if either he or Sakura didn't like the way it had turned out, but it was that she couldn't understand why it hadn't._

_"Another woman, perhaps?" Tenzou suggested._

_Tsunade had practically burst out into laughter right before everyone's eyes there in the hospital hall. She knew it was time for Sakura's menstrual period, just like all the men on her team did by instinct and/or smell. Was Tenzou afraid Sakura would be hard to controle or something?_

_"I don't think it is appropriate that a man be asked to help her dress--"_

_Oh, so that was it. He wasn't scared of her because of what week of the month it was. He was afraid of being killed for looking like a pervert._

_"You're not expected to do things like that," Tsunade replied, eyes twinkling brightly. "Just help her from wherever she's sitting to another sitting place and bring her what she asks. As far as the bathroom and things like that go, she's perfectly capable of everything, especially since her bathroom's only big enough for one person at a time."_

_Tenzou let out a grateful sigh and allowed a smile to grace his features, reminding Tsunade just how young the man really was, still. If she remembered correctly off the top of her head, he was only about six or seven years older than Sakura herself, meaning seven or eight years younger than Kakashi. Of course, though, Kakashi had been his captain while on full ANBU status. Why else did they call one another senpai and kohai rather than san and kun?_

_"So, you'll do it? I don't have to find someone else on short notice?" Tsunade asked, giving the much younger man a kinder, softer look._

_"Hai," Tenzou nodded once, "but not because you're asking me to, Tsunade-sama."_

_"Then why?"_

_"Because she is my teammate; she's saved my life many times. Because she did the same for me once, and I owe her for that."_

_Tsunade sensed there was more, especially because Tenzou's poker face was back in place, but she said nothing. In the ninja world, the things Sakura had done for him both in and out of missions equated a life debt he owed her. Also, it helped they'd become decent friends outside of work the way Sakura and Naruto had turned Sai into a friend as well._

_"She goes home tomorrow afternoon, before lunch."_

_"Hai."_

"Hungry, Sakura-chan?" Tenzou asked, tossing her a pre-wrapped sandwich before she could answer from her curled up position on the sofa where he'd helped her sit a moment after placing her on her own two feet again. "Sorry it's not much, but I wasn't sure the other selections looked decent enough."

Sakura looked at the "food" in her hands and sighed. "Help me up. We're going to make something worth while in the kitchen."

He cringed and did as he was told, sitting her before the freshly cleared off table and taking orders for ingredients as she called them out and where to put them in relation to her arm's reach. Next came the bowls, knives, spoons, measuring cups, and cutting boards along with one weighted rolling pin and a half gallon of butter milk stuffed in the very back of an over filled fridge long overdue for cleaning out.

"Careful when you bring out the chicken breast, though," Sakura warned, automatically mixing flour and shortening in a bowl with barely a glance to see that her measurements were correct. "It will fall out on your foot if you're not careful."

"Lovely," Tenzou muttered, hoping her hearing truly wasn't better than she claimed, and stepped back a bit before opening the left half of the fridge. Sure enough, one large package of chicken breast fell out of the freezer right where his feet would have been had she not warned him. He picked it up off the floor, shut the door hard to make sure it stayed closed, and set the meat in the sink, already filled with cool water as per Sakura's instructions while she called out for all sorts of other things.

"So, do you want chicken and dumplings, or chicken pot pie?" Sakura asked, already rolling out the dough.

"I thought dumplings were fluffier than that," he noted, gesturing to her thin, shortening heavy, rolled out dough that was no thicker than her pinky finger.

"They usually are, but this was something my mother showed me. It can go either way, to a thinner kind of dumpling, or into a pie crust. So, which shall we have?"

"Dumplings," he replied quickly. Honestly, he didn't feel like fishing for the vegetables required for the pie. Instead, he said, "I'd like to try the kind of dumplings you're family makes. It should be a nice break from the norm."

She knew without a moment's notice what was really going on in his mind. However, he hadn't actually said anything about her house keeping skills as of yet, even though the rolling pin had hit his knee rather hard...twice. As thus, she could not bite. Technically, he hadn't done anything wrong. On the contrary, he'd done everything she'd asked of him and more.

ああああああああああああああああああ

Sasuke pressed the tip of his sword into Karin's back, ready to electrocute her if he had to. The use of his modified chidori was painful for both attacker and victim, but deadly to victim only. Sasuke regretted teaching Karin how to get past the barrier around Konoha, but he wouldn't regret killing her within sight of her target.

"Drop the senbon now, Karin," Sasuke ordered, making sure to let her know it was his only warning before striking.

"You're going to kill me anyway, right, Sasuke-kun?" Karin purred, dropping two senbon.

"Lose the third one, too," he pressed the blade so that she was bleeding a little.

"Just how do you plan on getting away?" she asked, holding the third as if she hadn't kept it in the first place.

"This is my home," he reminded her. "I know these people and their weaknesses much better than you."

Karin watched her sleeping target through the bedroom window, sprawled over shiny, silk sheets colored hot pink, dressed only in a silky, pale pink spagetti strap night gown with white lace trimming. Bandages covered her lower right leg where skin had rotted away and was returning slowly. Those, however, were covered by the sheets which were pulled up to Sakura's waist. She was a rose Karin wanted to force to wilt much earlier than nature would have.

First, however, Sasuke would have to be taken out of the equation.

She didn't have the chance to do it, though his threat was also taken away rather quickly when a wooden cage surrounded her from out of the wall. Sasuke was gone from her hearing, sight, smell, and sense. The wound in her back bled freely now, but it was only a minor bother for the moment. Right now, a brown eyed man was standing in the window, clearly her captor.

"Sakura, wake up."

Her eyes were open in an instant. Tenzou was angry or frustrated when he used that tone. Wondering what she could have done durring her sleep to bring about this change in his demeanor, Sakura sat up quickly, only to dodge a flying senbon thrown by a blur of a feminine hand.

"What the hell?" Sakura questioned, brought fully awake by the unexpected onslaught. "Yamato?"

"I don't know how, but she broke free from me," he told her while trying to land a punch on the speedy kunoichi in Sakura's bedroom. "A little help would be appreciated."

Groaning inwardly as chakra exertion was not on her list of safe things to be doing at the moment, she decided throwing one of the wasted senbon back at the attacker would be the best idea. Tenzou saw her plan the moment she pulled a needle from her headboard and ducked in time with her throw. The senbon hit the attacking kunoichi in the hip, dropping her in an instant. Before she could escape, a second senbon hit her shoulder, keeping her from getting any hand seals formed. Right side completely disabled, the kunoichi couldn't escape a second wooden prison by Tenzou.

"It's her!" Sakura pointed, surprised. "That's that Karin woman that did this to me!"

Karin broke out laughing then, smiling at Sakura as if the whole situation was extremely funny.

"Why are you so happy?" Tenzou demanded.

"Bec--because!" Karin grinned. "You're after Sasuke-kun, but caught me instead! HA! He was right outside the window, too, but you grabbed me instead!"

ああああああああああああああああああ

Uchiha Madara both hated and loved Itachi and Sasuke. He hated Itachi for putting Sasuke through hell just to save a corrupted village from the destruction it deserved. He hated Sasuke for not seeing just why Itachi had pushed the younger brother so far... in order to survive the hatred sure to be directed his way. He loved Itachi for his loyalty to his brother, the way Itachi lived his life to correct his mistake and give his little brother the gift Madara's brother had given him... the gift of sight undimmed, and longer life than Itachi could hope to achieve himself. He loved Sasuke for his inability to turn on those he loved most.

Sure, Sasuke wanted the village elders dead, wanted the politics that had ruled the place gone and rebuilt on better standards, but when it came down to it there were still three people in that village he could not hurt. It had torn the youngest Uchiha up to know that at one time he had honestly done everything within his power to kill Naruto. He still couldn't muster complete distain for the pink haired girl that had devoted herself to him so fully and offered to leave their shared home to help him on his path if only to keep him from being alone when the time came to face Itachi. Sasuke still had such a soft spot for the girl, though Madara suspected Sasuke didn't even know just how deep it really went in his own heart.

And then there was Kakashi, the man who had given him Chidori, who had taught him how to properly use the Sharingan even though he himself was not an Uchiha. Kakashi had done his utmost to keep Sasuke safe as possible while Sasuke was still just a genin. Kakashi had offered him company on lonely days when the team was stuck at home with nothing really to do and unable to train due to injuries and what-not. Kakashi had been there when Sasuke hit puberty and didn't have anyone else to turn to besides other boys his own age. Besides, how was he supposed to continue looking cool and aloof if he went around randomly asking other guys about sex? How was he supposed to remain cool if he kept opening his mouth to speak and only emitted a squeak or other odd sound due to a rapidly deepening voice? Kakashi had made sure Sasuke had known it was alright, and that the strange urges he felt at times when looking at a girl was natural, and told him the sudden and strange tone shifts in his voice would end soon enough, and the random wet-dreams would slow down, but not to expect them to ever completely stop. That's why sheets were meant to be washed at least once a week.

Right now, though, looking at the younger of the only two remaining Uchiha in the wold, he didn't know what to feel.

"I will not attack Konoha with you," Sasuke said sternly.

"What?" Madara asked, taken off guard.

"You heard me. I refuse."

"And why is that? Are _they_ going to be there?"

"Homamura is the last one remaining of those who wanted our family dead," Sasuke reminded. "The village proper has been leveled by Pein. I believe Homamura has little time left to her. If I don't kill her first, someone else will. That or old age will take its tole. My task is almost done."

"Your task?"

Sasuke drew his sword. "Yes."

Sakura checked the vitals of the man at her feet. She didn't get any farther than seeing the electric burn marks and feeling his cold skin before determining he was dead. Someone whom had mastered at least one jutsu in the electricity element had done it. Sakura was only sure of two people that could inflict wounds like these. One was standing behind her in the entry way. The other was supposedly never more than a few hours from her very location at all times. Up until three days ago, that was.

"Well, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked, poking his head around Sai's shoulder in the hall way.

"It was Sasuke," she confirmed.

"And the Akatsuki man?" Kakashi asked, not looking over at the dead man yet.

"Not one of Pein's, that's for certain," Sakura straightened up. "Otherwise he's less recognisable than you, senpai."

"Hmm?" Kakashi turned around and saw what she was talking about. The orange spiral mask prompted a strange thought in his mind for a moment, causing him to laugh before realising that the sound was actually audible to the other three present.

"What, exactly, is supposed to be funny about this?" Sai asked, gesturing to the masked corpse.

"Red, black, orange spiral." Kakashi said as if that made all the sense in the world. The three stared blankly at him, confused and waiting for an answer.

"You three," Tenzou answered for Kakashi through the cabin window. "That man has things on his clothes that can be oddly connected to the three of you."

"How so?" Naruto asked, unsure still if it was safe to approach Sakura's vicinity to look the dead man over himself.

"Red; Sakura's clothes. Black, Kakashi's eye and ANBU tattoo not to mention mask and under shirts. Orange and spirals both have everything to do with being near you, of course, Naruto-kun. Maybe Sasuke saw him as a combination of you three. Maybe he saw him as a threat to you three. Either way, it's obvious how their meeting ended. Sasuke is still n the move and proving himself ever more dangerous."

"But who is he?" Naruto demanded. "I mean, sure he's an Akatsuki, but how high up? What part did he play?"

"Maybe if we look beneath his mask--" Sakura reached forward, but Kakashi stopped her hand in a flash.

"Wait," he told her gently holding her wrist. "Ten?"

"I'm on it," Tenzou went through the needed hand-seals and grew a clone from a seed in his hand and directed it to unmask the Akatsuki before them in order to protect everyone else present.

Thankfully, the unexpected happened. No traps had been set. It was just a mask on just a dead man. However, the identity of that dead man came into sudden question the moment their eyes locked onto his lifeless set. One black and one empty Sharingan stared up at the ceiling blankly.

"What the hell?" Naruto asked for everyone present. "Who is that old guy? How come he has the Uchiha kekke genkai?"

"Because he is an Uchiha," Kakashi replied sitting down and relaxing. "No need to worry about getting attacked now. Anybody comes here and sees this guy dead won't want to stick around long."

"You know who this is, senpai?" Tenzou asked, joining his mentor in relaxing at last.

"Uchiha Madara, the first man to receive the Sharingan as a gift. Those eyes once belonged to his brother. He's probably the one who made Itachi think it was a good idea to take Sasuke's eyes and kill off the rest of the clan..."

"You're right, Kakashi-san," an equally deep voice startled them all.


	3. Save Me

The four inside the room turned to face the window through which the voice had come, each searching a short distance in all directions for a chakra signature. Sakura and Kakashi being the closest two to the window felt the person first.

"Don't bother attacking me," the still hidden man laughed slightly. "I'm just the clone this time. Another scuffle like the last one would only be counter-productive to my plans."

"Then why are you so afraid to show yourself?" Naruto asked, catching on to the familiar signature beyond the wall.

"Not afraid, Naruto-kun," a pale head peeked in through the window, light reflecting back at them from his glasses. "Just smart enough to hide until you know it's pointless to kill me."

The five inside the room fought for a moment to keep their lunches down. Blood, internal organs, even rotting diseases were a part of their lives, but this was very different. It wasn't nearly as visually displeasing as much of what they'd seen in the past, but the psychological effect was something else. All but one corner of the man's face was made into scales and changed over into the albino appearance of a dead man; of Orochimaru. The one corner left of Kabuto looked frightened and cowering while his body moved of its own will against his wishes. Instead of controlling the power in wich he had taken into himself, Kabuto was controlled and forced to watch every moment of unwanted actions. To be so completely controlled by another, and to witnes every monstrosity--even if you're somewhat of a disagreeable person yourself--would be hell.

"Why are you here?" Sakura asked almost gently as if in hope that it was Kabuto that would answer and not Orochimaru.

"I had enough controle for a moment to create this clone to wait here after Sasuke-kun left," the monster before them spoke, confirming Sakura's hopes. "Kill the real me. Find the real me and kill me. Sasuke wouldn't do it. Please!"

"We should just let him suffer for all the--" Naruto started.

"No, Naruto," Tenzou stopped him. "If Kabuto looses all controle over his body, it will be no better than if the original Orochimaru were back alive."

"Then why didn't Sasuke just off him already?" Naruto demanded.

"Because his way lies in a different direction than Kabuto's," Kakashi stood down at last. "Who else would he be after?"

"Anyone we were using in the past..." the clone told them. "Even those still a part of Konoha... Like yourself Tenzou-chan. He'd love to wrap his hands around your throat if possible."

Tenzou's lips took an instant down turn and flicked up a hand. The earth below the clone shot up and brought it back down again, dismissing the clone with far more force than needed. "Too bad it wasn't the real one."

"Knock it off, Tenzou," Kakashi reprimanded. "If you take your frustrations out on every clone we come up on, you might miss the fake ones and just hit the real one one day. What if we just happen to need that real one alive?"

"You can't seriously be saying anybody would want someone like that alive any more?" Tenzou asked.

"Guys?" Naruto tried to get a word in.

"That's not our decision to make."

"He doesn't have any useful information any longer, senpai."

"Guys...?" Naruto tried again.

"Yes, Naruto?" Kakashi took the opening before Tenzou could say anything else.

"We have to get home." he answered. "Didn't you hear what he said? Sasuke will be heading there next!"

A switch clicked in Sakura's head, "He's going after Karin. She's still being held by ANBU, right?"

"And we've barely started getting information out of her," Kakashi's visible eye widened. "Shit!"

ああああああああああああああああああ

Sasuke tread over the familiar path to the old farm he'd taken up in. The house was broken down completely, and there was no way in hell he'd try the chicken coup. The barn, however, only had a couple leeks here and there. Old hay piled up along with fresh grasses he had gathered himself made for a comfortable bed as long as there was a blanket over it to keep the little dry bits from poking and scratching at tender skin. Add to that the fact that the chickens had moved into the barn as well and he had breakfast food every day without a hitch. It worked out well enough for his purposes, not to mention it wasn't in an area that Orochimaru had considered as a site for a base. Few would know to look for him in this area. Those few were hopefully not about to return here either.

Pausing for a moment, he looked to his right at the hill there. Near the top was a small cave with the remains of a fire not burned in nearly six months. He remembered the events that had lead up to the burning of that fire, suddenly thinking it would be more comfortable in that cave tonight, on the hard rock, than in the barn with the thick hay mattress.

The last time he had slept in there, someone had slept with him, even cuddled up next to him and spoke kindly the whole time. It had been a nice change of pace, he supposed, to be in gentle company, even if that company could break him in half if he angered her too much and wasn't quick enough to get out of the way. One other thing about it was good, too, he guessed. Sakura hadn't been a crying mess begging him to come home. In fact, the only kind of pain she showed him was physical, and those wounds were dealt by a hand not his own this time.

Yes, that hard cave floor would be warmer to the heart, but he reminded himself it would be much, much harder on the body. With the pace he planned to set in the morning, a sore body would only be a hindrance. If he was going to make it to Suna for his next target within the week, it wouldn't do to be extra angry at himself.

Turning away from the memories the cave brought, Sasuke kept on the path between the hills. He noted, too, that if he didn't get to the farm soon enough, he'd be drenched when the thundering clouds broke loose.

Having a child could double your speed and reflexes like nothing else as far as Sakura was concerned. Not only did she have to retrain her body after the baby was off her breast, but she found herself needing to be even quicker than before once Tsuyomi started walking. The child got into everything and fell hard off of any surface he could climb up onto when she wasn't looking. How the kid hadn't ended up dead after his first year of life under her eyes, Sakura wasn't sure, but what she did know was that it was a great lesson in speed and skill.

Thus, when rejoining Team Kakashi for training, she made a challenge to herself. Become faster than Kakashi within three months or do one month's midnight rounds at the Hospital on top of regular work as punishment. In hindsight, Sakura could see that it was a very... Lee-like thing of her to do, but it had worked.

Thus, she was now the one sprinting ahead of the others and acting as scout. Her right leg pained her, signaling that it wasn't as patched up as she'd originally believed before going out on this last mission. She would need a break soon, not to mention she knew she was out of range of the others for at least another hour. Also, the sky overhead was looking rather angry. However, she knew this area well enough to remember that there was an old far up ahead that could provide some shelter. If she was lucky, there would also be dry timber and other provisions in the house. If she was lucky, of course.

As the first few raindrops fell, Sakura put the rest of her energy into the sprint, making her way slightly off course of the plan in order to make for the farm. Either her teammates would catch up and realise what she had done, or they would bed down for the night somewhere decently safe from the thundering storm overhead for the night. Either way, first thing in the morning, Sakura was off at the same pace she'd taken today. She had to get to Konoha before anything happened.

Sasuke lay on the bed of hay and grasses, willing his mind and body to settle down for the night. Too many things kept running through his mind as he lay there, and random inclusions of the brief time he'd spent in that cave to the east of where he lay now made his body shift over and over, looking for the warm companion it could not, and would not, find here.

In a way, however, he found himself grateful that he couldn't settle down. Someone was walking into the barn from the ground level through the door directly below him.

The rain was already pouring down, no doubt the person below was drenched to the bone unless they were lucky enough to have a poncho to use while making their way here. Lightning flashed outside, brightening the barn just enough for him to catch the glimmer of a headband being used like a hair accessory... a hedband bearing the symbol of Konohagakure and nestled in pink locks.

Sakura could feel the presence of another person inside the barn. She didn't care though. Perhaps Ino's team had jumped the gun in following them up and it was her or Shikamaru up in the croft taking shelter in the same place she had chosen. If it wasn't, she'd deal with the situation as it played out. Tired and sore she may have been, but exhaustion was still a longshot off. Coming here was less of a necessity than a precaution in her opinion.

Her eyes took in every drop of light possible, taking in the surroundings and comparing notes from the last time that she'd been here. The house had finally collapsed, and the chickens had gotten loose by her own hand last time. The door closed on its own behind her due to the slight tilt of the land the building sat on. Sakura latched it without looking back.

"I know you're in here," Sakura called out into the darkness as another flash of lightning lit up the barn just enough for her to see that there was a new shadow before her on the far end where the ladder to the croft came down. "I'm just here to bed down for the night, but know that I am not defenseless if you decide to attack me. I can kill you, and I won't hesitate to do so if you mean to harm me."

"So kind of you to warn me like a civillian who's scared shitless of the dark, Sakura," a rich voice chuckled at her.

A slightly closer flash of lightning lit the barn again, showing her the face of the man before her. "I thought you would have left this area by now, Sasuke. Especially after taking out Madara."

"That old man had nothing left except an empty dream and death. I did him a favor," Sasuke replied, staying by the ladder.

"And what about what Kabuto said? Are you really going to try and kill Karin from within her prison?"

"I thought he was dead," Sasuke ground out, upset at the news.

"Might as well be, but you're avoiding the question."

"No, I'm not going to Konoha this time," he told her at last.

"Then where are you going?" she asked, taking half a step forward.

"I'm not telling you that," he smiled.

"Figures," Sakura mumbled to herself.

"Come up," Sasuke waved her over. "I have a better bed here than that cave."

He was offering a bed to sleep in? Well, that was definitely a drastic improvement from the situation she'd expected to end up in even considering their last meeting was a bit of a truce. Whatever had gotten into him, Sakura wasn't about to sneeze at it.

Climbing up the old ladder, she noted Sasuke had already flopped down on the make-shift bed, leaving most of the other half for her and added a second thin blanket for her benefit. The memory of their one time sharing blankets in the freezing cold caught up to her, and Sakura momentarily thought of laughing about it to him. Still, the look on his face was completely blank as per usual, and sleep really was on the top of both their lists.

By morning things had turned even worse. Winds blew so hard that some of the younger trees were struggling to stay standing. The barn creaked and leaned with each heavy gust. Sasuke gripped Sakura tighter, though if he was forced to say why, he would only tell her that it was to bring her comfort. A little wind would never shake an Uchiha, of course. Back turned to her bedmate, Sakura smiled secretly. Now she knew something that the man behind her feared. Wind.

Interesting, then, to also know that Naruto was nearly finished developing a third stage of the Rasen Shurikin that would send gusts of wind both infront of it and behind it.

Swallowing any remarks about the wind natured blond, Sakura instead wrapped her arms around Sasuke's body and pulled his head to curl into the hollow of her neck. Sasuke's body shook with an uneven breath that both refused to mention. Sakura thought it might be due to his fear of the wind as it rattled his nerves. Sasuke, however, shivered at a memory of his parents.

_The image had come unbidden to his mind's eye, but it was vivid as if the whole thing had played out just the day before._

_Uchiha Fugaku lay curled up in his wife's arms in the safety of their bedroom, away from the prying eyes of the village and clan alike. His body shook with every sob. Every breath was a sob._

_Uchiha Mikoto held her husband close, resting her chin upon his head and stroking his hair soothingly. Her face was stone blank, but her voice was warm with kindness and caresses only a mother and a lover could provide to her husband._

_A boy whom had been like their own sons to them had drown in the river the night before. Uchiha Shisui had done nothing to upset the clan or the village, and yet all evidence pointed to a murder._

_Little Sasuke had crashed through the doorway of their bedroom, running from a playmate he'd inadvertently angered durring a bout of wrestling outside. He had meant to hide behind his mother's legs, knowing she could protect him to nearly the same degree that his brother could, but what he found was that both his parents were yelling at he and his friend to get out right away._

_It was the one and only time he had seen tears streaked down his father's eyes._

Sasuke didn't know whether he hated or loved being in a similar position now, cradled in a woman's arms as he shook with an unbidden fear.

"Don't worry, Sasuke," Sakura muttered into his hair, "I won't let this get back to Naruto."

"Good," Sasuke got up the courage to laugh a bit. "I'd really have to kill the dobe then."

"We both know you can't do that to him," Sakura answered, not catching the humor Sasuke tried to present. "You love him too much."

"I love you more..."

Sakura pulled back a bit, startled, "What?"

Sasuke looked stricken and shocked. "I... I didn't mean to--"

"Oh never mind," Sakura curled up around him again. "It's not like I ever had a chance anyway. Just try to go to sleep."

Sasuke watched Sakura take off through the mud and drizzle of continuing rain. He would have to move shelters tonight. The rest of her team would be moving through here sometime within the next 24 hours.

Even though she couldn't hear it, Sasuke whispered a farewell to her shrinking back, "Make it home safe. I won't be able to follow you this time...and you do have a chance. If only I can give it to you."

Karin's place on Sasuke's list would have to wait another round. He had to figure out who had gotten hold of his list and eliminate them first.

ああああああああああああああああああ

"Aw damn, we missed him again!" Naruto cursed, looking at the pink and black hairs on the blanket before him. "Though it looks like Sakura might have finally gotten laid. That's a plus, right guys?"

"I highly doubt that scenario," Kakashi sniffed the air. "Nothing smells like it, and by the looks of it they just laid together because it's the most comfortable thing in the area that's big enough for one, let alone two."

"One problem with the theory of them both being here at the same time, though," Tenzou returned from the far end of the barn. "There's only Sakura's prints in the mud from here. No signs of another."

"It was most likely planned that way," Kakashi reminded. "It is Sasuke we're talking about."

"If they were here together," Sai added, "then he most likely knows we're planning to stop him and has changed targets for the time being."

"That or he talked Sakura out of beating him there," Kakashi grumbled just loud enough to be heard. "Leave everything. We pick up our pace and try to catch Sakura. She might be a liability now."

Sakura doubled over, panting as she made it to the gate guard of Konoha. Izumo, reached out a hand to steady her, but she slapped it away. "Tell the Hokage, a vital prisoner's live is in danger. Tell the Hokage that Karin--"

"On my way, Sakura-chan," Izumo patted her shoulder before sprinting off.

"You. Rest. Now." Kotetsu fixed her with a look. "You're worn out and no good to us half dead from exhaustion."

"Seems Like I told you that once or twice myself," Sakura flashed him a smile as she plopped down at his feet. "Tsuyomi making anymore trouble lately?"

"As per usual," Kotetsu began, but stopped himself. "Hey, why are you so tired if the rest of your team is this close behind you? Racing Kakashi again or something?"

"Huh?" Sakura turned her head to look back the way she had come and saw four familiar male figures dashing up the path to the gates she currently sat at. "They were supposed to be several hours behind me, if not a whole day!"

"Well it looks like something put a fire under their asses," Kotetsu straightened up a bit. "A fire indeed. They look pissed."

Naruto was waving his arms out and yelling something at them, but he was still too far away to be heard properly. If it hadn't been for Kotetsu's better eye-sight, Sakura wouldn't have even recognized it as being an irritated tone coming from the blond. Kakashi got to the gates first and headed straight for Sakura, jerking her up by the collar.

"Kakashi-sensei, what the hell?" Sakura struggled against him a moment before the angry gleam in the man's eye had her falling completely still.

"What did you tell them, Sakura?" Kakashi asked in a calm, deep voice that he had never once directed her way in the past. "Did you even tell them you let him escape again? Did it even cross your mind that we need her alive?"

"I take it you saw where I slept last night?" Sakura asked, trying not to roll her eyes.

"I know you were with him again last night," Kakashi replied, the other three just now catching up.

"Hey, senpai, drop her already!" Tenzou put a hand on Kakashi's arm, but Kakashi only sent him a bone chilling glance before returning his gaze on Sakura.

"Tell me!"

Sakura let out a mild sigh, "I told them to tell Shisho that Karin is in danger. Nothing more. Nothing less."

"That true, Kotetsu?" Kakashi demanded, eyes still locked on Sakura.

"Hai, Kakashi-senpai," Kotetsu replied quickly. "She came in barely able to stand she ran so hard. Much like the rest of your team it seems."

"Good," Kakashi finally dropped Sakura. "I'm going straight to the prison to supervise the guard myself."

"Senpai, wait," Tenzou blocked his path. "You're in no condition to be doing that."

"And who are you to tell me this?"

"Someone that's concerned for the welfare of another teammate, that's who. If you go in there like this and Shizune-san or Tsunade-hime see you like this..."

Kakashi looked like he didn't know whether to strip down his kohai verbally or just punch him out of the way and be done with it.

"He's right, you know," Sakura added. "I might have to pull medical rank over you and stick you in the hospital for evaluation. Sensei, you're scaring me! And if Tenzou-san is getting between you and your goal, I will back him up all the way."

"Who are you to say things like that?" Sai asked her before Kakashi could. "You are the one under suspicion for consorting with the enemy, not Kakashi-taichou."

"Consorting--?" She looked at each of her teammates, realising now why Naruto hadn't stepped in. Had he even thought she might sabotage the mission because of Sasuke? He, whom had done things out of the way and on his own and ruined previous missions because of Sasuke only to get his ass saved by her...? Shit.

"Sai, Tenzou," Kakashi spoke in a decidedly calmer, more relaxed voice. "Take Sakura to the Hokage Tower to wait for myself and the prisoner before speaking with anyone, even passing nin between missions. Make sure she does not speak to anyone besides yourselves. Naruto, go to your wife and son. Get them somewhere least expected as fast as possible. If Sasuke cannot get to Sakura or Karin, he may target them just for spite."

"Don't you think that's a bit uncalled for right now, senpai?" Tenzou spoke again, once more the voice of reason. "If he and Sakura discussed the reason she was alone, he will have changed targets to avoid being caught, don't you think? He is much like you. Isn't that how you would have handled things?"

Kakashi looked over his team again, and he saw the concerned faces. Had he really overreacted by that much? Still, when whomever Sasuke targeted now was dead, how much longer would it be before he returned his attention to Karin?

"Fine. All of you go home, or follow me, or whatever. I'll go tell Hokage-sama the situation."

"No you will not," Sakura stopped him in his tracks.

Five sets of eyes turned on her, all of them in disbelief.

"What did you say?" Kakashi asked, taking a step back towards her.

"As your medic, I'm ordering you to report for a full check-up, including mental state. This isn't like you, sensei."

"What do the rest of you say?" he asked, not sure if she was pulling this as a way to get back at him for something he'd said in the past few minutes.

Several hesitant nods greeted him.

"I'd do it if I were you, senpai," Tenzou spoke gently. "Ease all our worries, won't you?"

Kakashi sat as patiently as he could in the waiting room. Only minutes passed by, but they felt like hours. His toe started to twitch in time with the ticking of the clock mounted on the wall behind him. It felt like someone was breathing down his neck, but he was tied in place and unable to break his bonds.

"Hatake-san?"

His head snapped up to see Uzumaki Yashu holding the door open in waiting for him. He snapped up and grumbled about how long things took.

Barely three hours later, he found himself handcuffed to a hospital bed and his chakra restrained. His team gathered around his bed looking worried and fearful.

"Come on guys," Kakashi tried to smile, "Konoha's top two are working this out. Don't look so down."

Sakura looked at the level of sedatives being pushed on the man before them, it was nearly as much as what was given to keep a particularly violent prisoner down. She checked over Yashu's notes again on the clip board at the foot end of the bed.

_Diagnosis: reaction to gas believed to have specifically entered through Sharingan eye. Degenerating the ability to rationalise, expanding due to tensions present before exposure._

He might never work as a ninja again except when brute force was called for to protect the village. They all knew it, but none of them were stupid enough to mention it infront of him. No one had the courage to mention it to each other outside of the room, either. This was a man they had always relied on for the cool head and quick answers since they were younger. Now that part of him was being taken away bit by bit. Whatever could be saved, it was already too late.

"We believe in them as much as we believe in you, sensei," Sakura tried for a warm smile, the ones she usually used to sooth patients' fears. "They'll find something in time. We all know they will."

"What about you guys?" Kakashi asked. "Did it hit any of you?"

Sakura shook her head. "The gas was left over from an attack Kabuto must have brought on Tobi. It uses the Sharingan's inner workings to finish construction and attack the brain. We were all safe except for a slight difficulty breathing while in there. It was so slight we didn't even notice it. I'm sorry, Sensei."

"Tou-san! Kaa-san! You're back!" a flash of blond and red ran into the room, stopping to cling to Sakura for a moment, then wrapping around Naruto's legs. "Kaa-san said you were here and said I could come."

"Hey, Tsuyomi-chan," Sakura ruffled his hair at the same time Naruto patted the boy's shoulder. "How have you been?"

"Good..." Tsuyomi smiled up at her, still clinging to his father's leg like a baby monkey to it's mother's back. "What about Kaka-jii-san? Why's he here?"

"He's sick right now, but your Kaa-san's teachers are working on it. They'll make him better again, you watch!" Naruto offered, giving all the hope the child needed to brighten the room up even more with his smiling opaline eyes and toothy grin.

"Tou-san, I'm hungry. Can we go get some Ramen?" Tsuyomi begged his father in the only way that could still completely melt the hearts of those around him.

"Yeah, let's see if your Kaa-san can take some time off and come with us?"

"She said no already," Kakashi supplied, catching the others' attention again. "He tried the same thing on her earlier before you guys got here. She made him wait for you to get here."

Sakura stayed back in Konoha to work in the Hospital and keep an eye on Kakashi's progress or lack there of while Naruto, Tenzou, and Sai took up light missions, often testing new Genin in the field. Tsuyomi's time was split between Sakura and Yashu, bot the women working opposing shifts making that the most logical setup.

One of the days as Yashu passed the responsibility on to Sakura, both women noted the slightly paler than usual skin of the boy, as well as the child's quietness. Usually such episodes only happened if the boy was hurt or worried about a friend, but Tsuyomi admitted to neither case.

"Don't worry, Yashu," Sakura reassured the other woman. "We'll figure this out... even if I have to tickle it out of him!"

With that statement, Sakura lunged for the child's sensitive sides. Being that the boy currently had very little in the way of chakra use, he was unable to escape her. However, instead of laughing or yelling out as expected, Tsuyomi was quietly fighting her off, grimacing with the concentration of not reacting to the gentle fingers of one of his mothers.

"Uzumaki Tsuyomi, you knock it off this instant!" Yashu admonished. "This isn't like you. Now you tell us what is going on, or I'll have you doing dishes when you come back to stay with your father and I. Understand?"

The boy's eyes widened drastically in shock. He really hadn't meant to stand out that much by hushing up for a while to think.

"Tsuyomi, please," Sakura sobered up. "You're worrying us."

The child pushed his index fingers together timidly, eyes downcast. "It...it's just that..."

"Come on, honey, telling us the truth can't be as bad as doing all those dishes, can it?" Yashu knelt down at her adopted son's side to try and catch his eyes.

"It's that I heard Tou-san arguing with the Hyuuga man again. The one with the long hair that keeps his head wrapped even when not wearing his protector. They were really mad and loud and talking about me."

The women caught one another's glances. The Hyuuga Clan had many issues with Tsuyomi's freedom from their policies and traditions. Neji and Hanabi had tried to act as buffers between Hiashi and Naruto while Sakura and Yashu did their best to protect Tsuyomi from hearing about the arguments and legal battles. Still, there was the odd occasion word got back to the child himself. This marked two times that they knew of Tsuyomi hearing anything first hand.

"Don't worry, baby," Sakura stroked the child's arm reassuringly. "Your sofu just can't wait to have you learning to fight like him and your oji Neji."

"That's not what Oji said. He said my sofu wanted me to be marked. He looked really scared, and when they saw me they got really mad at me."

The child looked to be on the brink of tears, but he held them in bravely. Sakura stiffened, knowing exactly what the boy was referring to when he said the Hyuuga Clan wanted to mark him. Yashu, however, was completely confused.

"What does that mean, Sakura?" Yashu asked softly.

"I'll explain sometime when little ears aren't around, or any other ears for that matter," Sakura replied resolutely. "I can understand why everyone in the know wants to keep it hushed up. We should all keep this our secret, alright, Tsuyomi? Can you do that?"

"But I want to take Gamma-chan with me to Tou-san's this time!"

"Then you have to leave Koke here with me," Sakura replied holding out her hand to the boy as he clung to two toad plushies possessively.

"But I want to take them both," Tsuyomi pouted.

"You know the rules. One toy can be taken at a time, or you'll end up with all your toys in one place in no time. What would happen if you took everything back to your father's place and he made you choose just one to bring back here? You'd only have that one to play with, right?"

The boy pouted even more, realising that the woman before him was right. He couldn't play with only one toy for a whole week. Grudgingly, he passed back the orange colored toad to Sakura, choosing instead to keep hold of the green Koke. Sakura smiled and planted a kiss on the boy's forehead before playfully tweaking his nose. Standing back up again, a familiar mop of blond hair could be seen here and there through the crowded street, almost at her doorstep.

"Look there, your Tou-san's almost here!" Sakura looked down, but her boy was no longer where she'd left him. "Tsuyomi!"

Sakura spun in a circle. How that child could get out from under her nose so quickly was beyond her. Not to mention it usually meant he'd spotted a cute little animal, candy, ramen, or some other sort of trouble to get into that he knew she wouldn't allow but just had to try anyway.

"Tsuyomi you get back here this instant!" she shouted, at a complete loss as to what would have drawn his eye this time. Was it the woman on the next road selling candies? Was it the fact that there was a pile of broken crayons on the next porch over that the neighbor's kids had left out today and he had found something somewhere else to deface this time? Kami, but that boy was so much like his father!

"I've got him, Sakura," Naruto called back calmly. "Everything's fine!"

Sakura was torn between relief and disappointment as Naruto returned with Tsuyomi safely on his shoulders, one hand supporting the boy's leg and the other holding the stuffed green toad.

"Then you haven't heard the news yet," Sakura frowned, setting aside both previous emotions about her son to focus on the reason she wanted to accompany Naruto and Tsuyomi back to the child's destination. "How you managed not to is probably a miracle, though, I guess."

"Why; what happened?" Naruto's smile turned to a frown upon seeing the worry written on Sakura's face.

"Karin is showing signs of being affected briefly by Tsukuyomi," Sakura informed him. "Some wanted to blame Kakashi-senpai, but everyone who matters knows he can't use that dojutsu. Besides, we both know he's been out of the village with Tenzou-san. That only leaves one other person capable, but no one noticed any signs of break-in or tampering with security."

"There wouldn't be any signs if he played it just right," Naruto agreed, automatically knowing to whom she was referring. "He's back in town, and probably has at least that Suigetsu guy with him, right? That's the one Tenten mentioned seeing with him not far from here when her team caught up to Kabuto."

"Exactly," Sakura looked back up at the bored child atop his father's shoulders. "Keep an eye on them. Just because you say he'll come home for good doesn't mean anybody besides me is going to believe you."

"Right," Naruto's grip tightened on his son's leg slightly.

Months beforehand, Sakura had purposefully interrupted an argument between Tsunade and Homamura. The topic had been about effective ways of controlling Naruto and Sakura, keeping them from interrupting the capture of Sasuke should the Uchiha ever be seen within the area again, most likely brought by Karin's presence. Tsuyomi's captivity was one suggestion Homamura had come up with to at least distract the pair for the time it would take to subdue their fallen friend.

"How do you feel about maybe taking that camping trip a few days early, Tsuyomi-chan?" Naruto put on a false smile as he looked up at the blond boy. "It'll be the first time in a while that your Uncle Neji has been home long enough to show you some more tricks and have some fun, too, right?"

"Tou-san, what's really going on?" the four-year-old demanded.

"Grown-up stuff, kid," Sakura answered for Naruto. "Remember how confusing it was last time we tried to explain?"

"Oh, right... And Jii-san did promise, didn't he?" the boy smiled. "Sofu Hiashi is gonna be so mad!"

"That's the spirit!" Naruto proclaimed proudly.

While father and son waited outside and chatted idly, Sakura returned the orange Gamma plushy back to the child's bedroom within her home and grabbed a small box from her own dresser. Opening the box, she slipped two little circular objects, one blue and one green, from the velvety interior and into a padded secret pocket at the top of her left shoulder before leaving her house to join the blonds outside.

"Actually, Sakura, this kind of worked out," Naruto mentioned as they walked in a different direction than she had expected. "Neji already suggested taking Tsuyomi out with the other kids of the clan instead of doing things one-on-one like originally planned. I mean, sure a couple of the parents will be upset Tsuyomi's going, but none of the kids have much of a problem with it, and he'll be even more secure with them outside of the village."

"I take it that's why we're not heading back to your house?" Sakura asked, liking the sound of this more and more.

"Yep," he replied. "Yashu's waiting at the gates with his things. Once this little brat's safe in Neji's hands, she and I are heading out for a well deserved night out. I haven't been home enough to treat her like she deserves, you know?"

"That's so sweet of you, Naruto," Sakura laughed, momentarily forgetting her reasoning for tagging along. "Does she even know?"

"Not at all," he grinned slyly. "Poor woman's been down so much lately because.... Well she's been down about a few things, and I want to remind her how much she really means to me. I don't care about what has her sad as much as what will make her happy."

"You mean," Tsuyomi tapped his father's head, "you want to lock the door and kiss her all night again!"

"Well, that, too," Naruto laughed, knowing without a glance that the child on his shoulders was pulling a disgusted look. "I can't help but want to kiss that face every time I see it! Ow! Don't hit so hard, boy! Do you want to knock me out and fall on your own head for your efforts?"

Realising the danger of falling from so high, Tsuyomi wisely stopped thumping Naruto on the head. "It's still just... eew!"

Sakura watched along with Naruto and Yashu as Tsuyomi was lead away with many young, milky-eyed children by a handful of similar adults. Though she doubted anyone would directly attack the group, especially since they weren't really going that far from the village, she wondered if Neji and the two other Hyuuga adults in the group that agreed with Naruto's decision not to completely hand Tsuyomi over would be enough to protect the boy from threats within the campers themselves. There was no telling whom the elders might have roped in behind closed doors to carry out a kidnapping of the only child among the Hyuuga to have a blue tint to his eyes. Seeing the same thoughts going through her friends' faces, Sakura stepped up between them and their line of sight to the boy.

"I have something for you, Yashu," she pipped up, holding out a cheese-cloth wrapped package to the other woman. "I know it's still touch-and-go right now, but I think that this should get us some sort of results."

Yashu took the package gently, unfolding the cheese cloth to reveal a set of thin sticks colored pink, from what she couldn't guess. She counted ten, then looked back up with questioning eyes.

"Grind it up and put it in your food, or eat it straight if you think you can stomach it that way if you want," Sakura instructed. "One stick every two weeks should start something up. I'll have more made by the time you're finished with these. It helped Misau when she took it with the others, although it was in a much smaller dose. I think if you just take this straight, you'll have better luck."

Yashu smiled back sweetly. She knew exactly what these little sticks were for now. "You won't let me give up hope, will you, Sakura?"

"Never!" Sakura beamed back at her. "I know how much you want this, Yashu, and I want you to have it, too. You're so good to Tsuyomi, you deserve one or ten of your own, you know?"

"Ten?" Naruto's eyes bulged. "I seriously hope you're joking. You are joking, right?"

"If what you said last year was right," Sakura cut him off from further hysterics, "I'm going to be stuck with about that many even if all I want is one or two. Why not share the wealth?"

"But that's different! Your case is completely different from ours! It's not like we're trying to bring up a whole clan on our own!"

"But we will keep this up," Yashu eyed her husband knowingly. "I really do appreciate everything you're doing for us, Sakura."

"You'll get that baby if I have anything to say about it, Yashu. Just wait. We only have to find the right combinations for you." Sakura assured. "And now I believe there was something else you had planned for her today, Naruto?"

Sakura leaned against the wall near the gate guard's station where shinobi checked in and out when traveling, watching her friends walk hand-in-hand down the road. As distracted as Naruto might seem on the outside by his wife and their animated chatter, she knew he shared her feeling of anxiety beneath the surface. Anxiety for Tsuyomi, for Yashu's difficulties, and for the one that got to Karin... the one that could very well be in the village still. It wasn't like they could just get a Hyuuga or someone else similarly talented in detecting the use of appearance altering genjutsu to check out everyone in the village. Many used them on a daily basis because they were too vain to show their wounds or old scars. Others used them for days on end as a means of training for undercover operations when they themselves aren't as sharp on keeping such techniques solid as others. More still had such jutsu placed on them by other people for various reasons and were not themselves capable of dispelling it for one reason or another, if they even wanted to do so. Detaining everyone that didn't look exactly the way they would look naturally would be a huge pain and take so long that the one they looked for would slip off long before capture.

Sakura closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the wall. There wasn't really anything anyone could do at the moment except tighten security as subtly as possible, including alerting officially off-duty and retired and disabled shinobi as well as citizens to keep an extra bit of vigilance for strange occurrences that could be linked to Sasuke. Like they weren't already worried about his movements to begin with. One of his top targets was within the walls of Konoha, of course they were worried and cautious beyond usual.

"Haruno Sakura-san?"

She opened her eyes to see a sandy-blond haired man with amber eyes looking at her hopefully. He was no shinobi. That was made clear by his under developed body and fidgeting when there was no reason to be nervous. At least, she didn't think he had a direct reason to be nervous.

"Yes?" Sakura asked the man gently, hoping to ease his nerves a bit.

"I was told to hand you some papers and escort you somewhere," the man replied.

"On whose orders?" she asked, eyes narrowed. This was definitely unusual.

"I'm not allowed to say," the man replied. "Just read the note, please. He said you'd understand the meaning of the name he used."

Sakura held out her hand expectantly, keeping her eyes on the man for any stranger behaviour. When the paper was shakily given, she slowly removed her eyes to read the small note.

_He won't harm you, Sakura, but this is Suigetsu. I have ordered him to make sure you come to me straight away. No, he isn't as nervous as he appears as you must know by now. I have no intentions of harming you or anyone else in the area for the time being._

_Do not alert Naruto or any other nin in the area, or Suigetsu will kill them. No one must know of my exact location except the two of you._

_----Urami Sagimaru_

That was a name she hadn't heard in nearly a year. The last time was durring the winter, and she couldn't walk on her own, her leg beginning to deteriorate from the inside out. Containing her heightened anxiety, Sakura instead leveled a piercing gaze on the sandy-haired man before her. How easily she could call everyone to take out the seemingly harmless civillian man whom was actually an S-class killer nin. Still, that would mean at least one death--even if it was only Suigetsu's--and "Urami Sagimaru" would take off, an indeterminable amount of time sure to pass before next contact. That next contact would definitely be decidedly less friendly than this one.

"Sure, whatever," Sakura put on her actress' skills. "I was wondering if he'd ever contact me. After how things ended the last time, I doubted he'd ever get the nerve to talk to me again."

"He has not been acting normally lately, true," Suigetsu replied, gesturing for her to take the road to her right. "I almost can't stand him any longer myself."

"And where has he chosen to stay? Family take him in again this year?" Sakura asked, knowing the real question would be understood.

"Yes, but his parents are a bit full up, so he's staying at a cousin's house for the time being. Big birthday party and all for his brother, you know. Coming in so unexpectedly didn't leave them any way to make room for him again."

"I see, well at least someone was able to, or I'd have to take him to my place this time," Sakura replied. Damn, but Suigetsu was right. It was the anniversary of the day the Uchiha massacre, and such things could bring about more ghostly activities according to some. If Sasuke was one of those that were sensitive to such beings, she knew he would have little peace at the main house. Most likely, he took up shelter in one of the few places within the Uchiha compound that was not lived in at the fateful time he lost everything.

Sure enough, a place at the far wall of the compound was their destination, and upon entry Sakura could see that only bare furnishings were present. The place still had a "fore sale or trade" sign out front, although it was knocked over and partially encompassed by a tree that must have been nothing more than a sapling when the sign was first placed there. There was most likely no deaths of the unnatural kind that had occurred within these walls.

"You're free to do as you wish now, Suigetsu, under the conditions already stated," Sasuke said from the doorway to the kitchen when they entered the small house.

"I'm off then," Suigetsu nodded before shutting Sakura in alone with the raven haired man before her.

Sakura and Sasuke both took a long time to look over each other. Sasuke's hair was a few inches longer than usual, and it even showed signs of being pulled back at the temples and bangs recently. His simple white shirt, navy pants, and sage green yukata looked out of place to her, but perhaps they were clothes he'd salvaged from a dead family member's closet at some earlier time.

To Sasuke, the only difference in the woman before him was her expression. It was not shocked. It was not mournful. It was not full of teary hope or pleading. She looked at him appraisingly, then seemed to just accept whatever conclusion her mind had come up with. Now she waited passively, yet still tense in case of a fight. Sasuke had no intentions of fighting her.

"I'm sure some news has reached you of Karin's new turn in mental state," Sasuke opened the conversation on a seemingly neutral topic.

"Yes," Sakura answered softly, but curtly.

Sasuke waited, but she had no more to add. "I have some things for you if you want them."

Sakura inclined her head in question.

"All of my physical inheritance and half of the finances."

Sakura's eyes nearly popped out of her head. That was quite the lump sum.

"I have only one condition."

Of course, he wanted something. She would give it to him without the bribe, and he should have known that. What more he could have wanted from her, however, Sakura could not guess. She had never made it a secret that she wanted him home and was doing what she could to fight the council on his behalf.

"You don't have to bribe me, Sasuke," Sakura reminded as the thought passed her mind a second time.

"Good," Sasuke replied. "I want to know why you haven't killed me the past two times you've had the chance. The very two times I slept by your side."

Sakura was confused. Why would she have wanted to kill him those two times? His question didn't make sense. "I may not be under the same spell I was as a kid, Sasuke, but I do still give a damn about your well being."

"You didn't have to hold me," he told her, and she knew he meant the night in the barn.

"I did tell them you would come for Karin, though."

"You didn't tell them it wouldn't be right away."

"It was in all our interests that Kabuto be eliminated."

"Excuses," Sasuke shot her down, though his face remained impassive.

"Then why don't you tell me why you didn't kill me each time you've had the chance?" Sakura demanded, getting moody very quickly. This whole thing was out of character for Sasuke, and she started to understand what Suigetsu meant by not being able to stand the difference. Sasuke was being rather pushy and extra demanding of her rather than himself. What had it taken to get Suigetsu to comply? What exactly were the conditions he'd set for the S-class criminal?

Sasuke was silent and still for a moment. His eyes wandered her face, then the room in general before settling on the floor before his feet. With a sigh, he looked back up at her, locking black eyes with green in a determined sort of manner, but one not laced with threat of physical harm like once was the case. He placed one foot infront of the other, crossing the distance between them in eight steps exactly. He seemed to measure each step as he walked, not taking the usual length of pace for whatever reason, most likely not to put her guard up even farther.

His right foot slit to a stop by his left as he stood before Sakura, and if she hadn't known any better, she would have thought she saw him trembling. Then again, the one trembling could very well have been her. The past two times he'd been this close to her were due to limitations of space and the need for warmth. Back then, he also hadn't been this intense, just looking at her and seeming to war with himself. Back then, he had just acted, not thought too much. Now he was thinking, struggling even.

"Why, Sasuke?" Sakura asked much quieter, unable to move back like she would have any other time. The door was only one step backwards, after all. "You could even do it now, but you won't, will you?"

Sasuke's hand slowly went up around her neck, his thumb at the dip right above her collar bone on her throat, fingers pressed to her jugular. She expected him to crush her at any moment, but his touch remained gentle. It took her a moment to realise his lips had parted slightly, eyes taking on a openly curious look as his other hand reached out and rested on her left shoulder, his brows then furrowing even further. Sakura remained where she stood, not fully understanding what the situation was.

"What is this feeling, Sakura?" Sasuke asked after a moment of remaining still. "Why does my heart race with yours? Why do I feel like there's an invisible force within me pulling me towards your body? Why do you make it hard to breathe?"

Sakura stilled completely. She had never took Sasuke to be so easily confused by such feelings. To her they were all self explanatory. He was physically attracted to her. Considering the only other woman known to ever be loyal to him for more than his looks was rotting away in a prison, it was only natural he would next be gravitating to her. Still, the fact that he opened up enough to admit these sensations to her was much bigger than Sakura could have ever hoped to hear.

"Sakura?" Sasuke implored, eyes glancing at different parts of her face as if one of them might hold an answer her words could not. "Why does my chest hurt like this when I'm near you? It feels like it's heavy and trying to get out of my body and into yours. Am I sick? Am I in danger of some sort of disease? What is this?"

"I don't know if you're ready to know what it is or not," Sakura forced herself to say, because if she told him that it was how she felt every time he was near he would know and he would be frightened.

"Then Suigetsu was right," Sasuke backed off, retreating to the other side of the room to put as much distance between them as possible without leaving her direct sight.

"What did he say it was?" Sakura asked, unsure of what exactly the other man might have suggested.

"Lust."

Sakura stifled the urge to nod. "And what do you think it is?"

"I think..." he fumbled for the words, throwing Sakura off even more. Perhaps the proximity to all the ghosts of his past were what had him so off, but something in the back of her head told her otherwise.

"Lust is correct," he finished, then seemed to want to add, "but I don't think lust alone can account for why it's only you I seem to want like this. There are so many other women around with your body type, but the only reaction I get when I look at them is something I'm familiar with. I don't care what happens to them whether or not I would give in and take them. You, though..."

"Are you worried I'd say no?" Sakura asked before she could stop herself, the light bit of laughter that would have followed hat this been any other man was cut off, at least.

"I don't know what I'd do if you said yes," he admitted. "I want you to have what I offered either way, but... I also don't want to leave you alone with it all."

She didn't have to plead with him to stay. They both knew that was what she wanted.

"I saw you with Tsuyomi earlier," Sasuke switched topics. "He is something else."

"He is love," Sakura corrected, happy to change the topic.

Sasuke sat down on the floor and ran his fingers through his hair, frustration clear in every movement. Sakura didn't know how to react, whether to got to him and treat him like she had Naruto the day they all found out Hinata was pregnant, or if she should just walk out now and do her duty as a kunoichi of Konoha and alert the right people about Sasuke being there. If she did the latter, however, she knew he would probably hate her forever. Sasuke would return only if he was ready to, not when she could try and trap him.

"You know I am not ready to explore these things fully," Sasuke looked back up at her. "I have no time for them when it's not safe for me here and it's not safe for you out there from the very people I was with in the past."

"That's why I'm still standing here instead of running out the door to bring fifty men down on this place," Sakura replied.

"I still don't want you to have all of this and be alone in it," Sasuke shook his head and looked back at the floor. "It's not for Naruto, or Tsuyomi, or anyone else. They have enough, much more than you right now at least. I want these things to be yours, and I want you to... I think I can trust you to be the... Damn it! Why is this so hard to say?"

Sakura didn't flinch when he slammed his fists onto the wooden floor in frustration. She was too overwhelmed by what he was trying to say rather than what was actually happening before her eyes. Sasuke gathered his resolve to stand once more, this time taking the distance between them in only three long strides before pushing her back against the door and pressing his mouth to hers.

He never wanted to kiss anyone like this before, gently and thoroughly as if leaving any speck of her own lips untouched would be the death of him. His hand fisted in her hair and forced her head to tip back so that their mouths could meet while their bodies pressed firmly together. Sakura's shock caused her to open up the lips he couldn't take his attention off of, and Sasuke took full advantage of the moment to lick at her teeth, nip at her bottom lip, then kiss her full on. He held her like a man starved of any physical contact for years that suddenly came to an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Sakura could feel him tremble against her, his nerves finally getting the better of him as he pulled away slightly, the hand not fisted in her hair coming to her neck, resting where it had mear minutes earlier. His eyes searched hers for an answer to a question he wasn't sure he knew how to ask.

"I think..." he spoke again, seeming to come to an understanding even as the words were said, "I want to create the kind of love that Tsuyomi is with you, but I want more than the one. I don't want to loose you like Naruto lost Hinata. I don't want this place to be without at least one person inside it being an Uchiha, and I want you to be the one to put that name back in this place, because I can't do that myself yet."

"Do you realise what you are asking me to give up?" Sakura asked in return.

"You work within these walls more than outside of them anymore," Sasuke reminded. "Instead of taking on missions outside of the village, you'd have a home to keep in order instead. Is it really much different?"

Sakura knew just how much it cost Sasuke to say these things, just how hard it was for him to continue to hold her and keep his body so close to hers when through all the years he had done nothing but push her away or completely ignore her up until just over a year ago.

"Sasuke, I don't think I--"

"This was your dream once, Sakura," Sasuke interrupted her. "Let me give some of it to you."

"My dreams have changed since then, Sasuke," Sakura put a hand on his chest, pushing him back gently. "Back then I just wanted you to pay me some kind of attention. I've got Tsuyomi to think about now, and I'm trying to help Naruto get another child. I'd give anything to help him have another, and even though I want a few of my own sometime, you know I can't afford it right now. I have to keep going out there and pretending to try to force you to come home so that they don't send someone else after you... someone that might hurt you. I just want you to be safe, and I want to have what I can with Tsuyomi."

"They only want me back here because they want me to have children, Sakura," Sasuke reminded her. "If you accept, you'll have more time with Tsuyomi, and more time to concentrate on helping Naruto, and you'll have helped save me from someone else being sent because the elders will have what they want from me. You can start on your own family and everything will be provided for you here."

"You don't want me coming after you anymore."

"I don't like having to tell you no anymore."


	4. Gifts

Well, here's the first lemon. It's not the best in the world, since it's shown from two points of view, but the hotter stuff will have to wait. I'm too tired right now to worry with writing the really good stuff (at least this one outstrips the one in "Tsuyomi").

Otherwise, this is basically Sakura coming to terms with becoming a mother for real and fessing up to Tsunade, Yashu, and the team. Ino is obviously involved. Poor Tsuyomi, he's got to be one confused kid right about now.

Anyway, thank you all for reading, thanks also for the comments, alerts, and favorites.

I'm currently looking for ideas on how to get Kakashi back alive so that things can kind-of mesh back in with the manga chapters. Any and all suggestions are welcomed!

WARNING: LEMON ALERT! If you're not ready to read it, you can pretty much skip this whole short chapter. It's mostly sex and then finding out she's pregnant. Yep, sex leads to pregnancy which means babies!

.

.

.

.

.

.

"Then show me," Sakura countered, still too timid to touch him, as if he weren't really there.

"Show you what?" he asked, confused.

"You said there was something you had to show me...back in the cave near that farm."

Sasuke thought for a moment. It had been a long time since then and he couldn't remember if it was physical or not--the thing he wanted her to see. He realised now, that it was a mixture of both.

"I can, but I don't think you're ready." he said after the short time. "It involves a version of Tsukuyomi mixed with Kakashi's dojutsu for time and space manipulation."

Sakura silently agreed. Sure, she wanted to know just what it was he wanted her to see, but she also was unwilling to allow him to potentially harm her mind and body through something like that, no matter how confident he was.

"No more excuses, Sakura," Sasuke leaned in to kiss her lips again, more gently. "I'm here now, and I'm both willing and wanting. Are you?"

Sakura shook lightly. Was this to be the beginning of what Naruto had told her about a year ago? If she indulged this once, would she forfeit her status as an active kunoichi? Was it worth it? Very little thinking was needed on her part. The answers to all three questions came together at once.

"Yes," Sakura replied, finally reaching out to him for more physical contact.

.

.

.

Sai had learned to recognize the chakra signature of his one time target. Officially, Sasuke was still on his hit-list, but he wasn't about to betray his only friends by taking the Uchiha out now... not if his hand wasn't forced. This, though, was almost enough to make him jump in and break things up.

He may not have been able to hear the words said, or even see their mouths to lip-read, but he could tell that Sakura was trembling as Uchiha Sasuke pinned her to the door. Still, no actual blows had been dealt out since his arrival, so Sai sat and waited. That's when it struck him. What if no physical blows were being dished out, but all kinds of dojutsu were?

Sai readied himself to spring through the closed window, prepared for the bite of sharp glass as it broke apart under his weight and scratched his skin all over, but stopped just short of actually leaving the rooftop.

Sakura was fisting her hand in Sasuke's hair, and the pair of them were moving slowly into the main part of the room together... lips locked. Hands roamed everywhere over chests, backs, necks... As more skin was revealed, lips followed fingers or went in opposing directions, occasionally meeting back up again.

Right now, Sai knew, was most likely both Sakura's and Sasuke's weakest moment, both believing they were the only two in the area, both wanting to have that physical contact born of lust alone... both willing to mate. It was pure animal instinct that seemed to drive them after the slightly awkward conversation they'd seemed to have seconds earlier, and Sai was grateful he was there now.

Not only would he be able to study this alien aspect of human interaction for the first time, but he could be there to protect Sakura's back. He remembered how weak Sakura had become when carrying Tsuyomi. If she let her guard down enough to both become pregnant and carry child rather than end up with another child the way she had before, he believed she would be doubly weak and need more protection. After all, who knew what other person might be in the area? Could one be near by that was allied to Sasuke but enemies with Sakura like the woman called Karin? Would that person go as far as to kill his teammate?

It was a possibility he wouldn't allow to become reality. Sai would be their silent guardian, not for Sasuke, but for Sakura.

.

.

.

Sakura understood very well what the little dribble of liquid against her stomach meant, especially since she herself had dampened thighs to match. Sasuke, however, seemed to be an utter novice to the whole idea of wanting a woman. He looked confused, almost frightened of the prospects, as if he didn't really know where to go from this point onward.

"Are you..." Sakura blushed a bit deeper than her already flushed skin would have in other circumstances, "Are you a virgin?"

"Not exactly," Sasuke replied, continuing to run his finger tips over Sakura's sides and breasts lightly. "I just...it was never something I wanted before."

"Oh, Kami, Sasuke..." Sakura leaned in to kiss his neck and hug him in a much less sexual way despite their nakedness and his obvious arousal. "What has been done to you?--No, don't answer. Not now."

.

.

.

Sasuke watched the second most awkward situation of the day pass before his eyes as the man and woman below moved out of his line of sight, searching for more comfortable places for their coupling. He moved in accordance to what turned out to be a barely furnished bedroom window. Choosing a different roof-top, he settled in for the time being, hoping they wouldn't chose to change locations once more. If they kept leaving his line of sight, how was he to study their intercourse?

He could now see Sasuke slightly propped up on pillows, Sakura curled in his lap with her head bobbing at his groin, giving him oral sex--what many referred to as a "blow job." At the same time, however, Sai could tell that Sasuke's fingers were stroking along her slit, dipping in occasionally which caused her to react in a way that was even more pleasing to the Uchiha. Soon, the position was different. The raven man topped the pink blossom, trapping her between his own hardness and the firm mattress below as he rained open mouthed kisses over her shoulders, chest, neck, and finally back at her mouth.

.

.

.

The moment Sasuke had her lips again, Sakura could feel his hesitation as it built and was shut off again like the flick of a switch. He would not allow his hand to shake as it caressed her breast, and he would not allow it to give way when he switched all his weight to it... the other hand again at her entrance, this time with something more than a finger to offer her hungry body.

.

.

.

Sai didn't understand why, but as Sasuke's body entered Sakura's, joining them in full intercourse, both of the couple seemed to have pained expressions twisting their features and yet Sakura still pulled him in deeper and he obliged very willingly. He knew that his penis was very sensitive, and that it could feel very good if handled correctly. Was it correct to assume that the same feelings could be engendered in the opposite sex through similar contact to their openings? Or, did it actually hurt them both, being that she was tight and he larger than comfortable for her opening, putting undue pressure on both parties to the point of pain?

If their eagerness to thrust into one another again and again was any indication, Sai believed his former assumption was the correct one. It was not actually pain, but intense pleasure that the couple felt while mating.

This, right here, right now, was their very weakest minutes durring the coupling, and he had to look elsewhere and re-scan the area to be sure no undue harm came to his female teammate. Had he not looked up, he wouldn't have caught a flash of pale skin in the tree near-by.

Looking closer, he could see another young man watching the couple below as he had been moments before. This person, however, was actually careful to hide more than his chakra presence. That was enough to send the warning signals up in Sai's mind. Sure he hid his chakra to keep from alerting the couple below, but he knew there was no reason to hide his body as lon as his shadow didn't give his position away.

.

.

.

Sakura's body arched into Sasuke's more with each hard thrust. Her body rose as the time ran out between them. Still, Sasuke could feel himself getting closer than her. With two more measured movements, he was done for. His body shook with the need to beat into the woman beneath him mercilessly.

Sakura could read the look in his eyes and gave her consent, "Take me, Sasuke...let go."

He did as he was told, ramming harder, faster, less in time with anything but his own body's pleas as the pressure in his cock built to bursting. Hot liquid was rushing out around his shaft, and vaguely he recognized the sounds of Sakura moaning so loud it was actually a yell while her vaginal walls clamped down hard and steady, nearly limiting his movement within her body.

Leaning down, he managed to plant a couple quick kisses to her opened lips as the dam finally broke loose.

There were no stars or colorful streaks and explosions of light, no tingling through-out his body starting at his toes and working its way through the rest of him. There was only the feeling of her skin, slick and hot. There was only the sensation of pulsating in his groin while more bursts of hot sticky liquid spilled forth around his shaft and tip of his penis. There was only her ragged breathing and the sound of her name being repeated over and over from his own lips. There was only the smell of sweetness just tainted with a salty odour below the surface.

There was only him, and there was only Sakura. There was only the deep satisfaction of a purely welcomed and fully enjoyed coupling for the first time in his life. There was only the beat of Sakura's heart under his ear echoed in the still pulsating muscles of his groin. There was only her, and there was only him. A man and a woman holding on for dear life, but knowing they would soon have to part.

.

.

ああああああああああああああああああ

.

.

The moment came and went for Sai, when he could have taken out the other shinobi peeking in on the couple below. He let it pass, though, rather than lamenting its loss. The other man was not here to bring harm as far as he could tell, or he would have struck minutes earlier. When the Uchiha left the little house, the slender man in the tree joined him and they were gone from his sight in a flash. Sai had caught just enough of their short conversation to know that they were leaving Konoha, not staying for anything else.

Sakura, Sai saw as he turned back, was curled up around a green yukata he did not recognise. After she had redressed into her own clothing, she had added the yukata as an afterthought before slowly making her way back outside of the building and through the old Uchiha district.

.

.

.

Sakura couldn't feel the presence of the man behind her, so she knew it was by design that she now saw his shadow beside her own. He wanted her to have some warning of his coming, but not scare her away with a short flare of chakra that would set her on edge unlike the peaceful shadow. Turning, she looked straight into inky eyes and a pale face... Sai.

"What are you doing here, Sai-kun?" Sakura asked, trying to cover up her earlier sadness with a smile.

"I wonder if it is safe for you to return home with his symbol on your back for all to see?" Sai asked in return.

Sakura stiffened. Just how much did the man before her know?

"Do not worry about Kakashi-san hearing of what I saw, Sakura," Sai replied to her unspoken question. "However, you are placing yourself in danger by wearing that."

"You saw?" Sakura's eyes widened, fearful rather than offended.

Sai nodded. "From the moment you were trapped to the door, I was watching."

"Pervert," Sakura grumbled, wondering whether or not to hit him.

"There was another as well," Sai lifted a hand in a defensive gesture. "I did not know if he meant harm, so I stayed to keep an eye on him as well. He left with the Uchiha."

Sakura seemed unsurprised in his eyes. So, she knew about the other person, and there was likely no threat for him to worry with in the first place.

"Come," Sai held out his hand to her. "Take that off and I'll put it in my bag so no one asks about it. I'll walk you home so that you can have it back there."

Reluctantly, she did as he ordered, folding the yukata neatly and tenderly before allowing him to set it in with the art supplies he always kept on hand.

.

.

ああああああああああああああああああ

.

.

Tsuyomi watched Sakura pace back and forth in the hall way, holding a small plastic stick and muttering to herself just softly enough that he couldn't pick out individual words, but could tell she was rather bothered by whatever the stick represented. After a couple minutes of this, her friend, Ino, got tired of watching Sakura worry herself to death and gathered her up in her arms.

"Come on, girl, it's not all bad news, is it?" Ino asked with a slight smile. "Konoha's going to get another brat with your strengths, most likely, right? Especially if the guy was just some regular ninja with nothing that can compare to you... Right? You're going to be able to pass on what Tsunade-sama taught you, but to your own little kid! You should be happy!"

"That's not what I'm worried about, Ino!" Sakura moaned in frustration. "I know the father has a kekke genkai that the kid's most likely going to get. It's very strong in his immediate family! Even some of his branch family had mastered it before-- Oh, Kami, what if the council want to kill my baby? Ino, I can't go on any more missions, but they'll get suspicious! They'll want to know everything, and if I don't tell them, they'll know by the time they're able to activate the--!"

Ino's face changed into something Tsuyomi didn't understand. Was it anger? Was it suspicion? Both? Why? As far as he could make out, he was going to be a big brother, right? Wasn't that a good thing?

"Sakura...who is the father?" Ino demanded in a low tone, holding Sakura back at arm's length by the shoulders.

Sakura shook lightly in Ino's hands, her grip tightening on the plastic stick to much that the thing snapped apart in her fingers.

"Oh, Kami, Sakura!" Ino understood right away. "You slept with _him_? You let him _go_? Do you have any idea just how much danger you're in now? Look at what happened to Hinata, and the kid wasn't even related to any of them! Do you want to end up like her the moment the council figures things out?"

"That's why I called you here, Ino!" Sakura shoved passed the blond to flop down in the living area. "I don't know what to do. Naruto will know the moment he hears, and you know he can't keep anything about Sasuke secret. The news will be all over Fire in a day. I won't be able to leave for anywhere safer since we both know how much love and hate the elders as well as the rest of the ninja community have for the Uchiha clan. What happens if they end up with his kind of chakra instead of mine? I won't be able to defend myself once their chakra systems start to build..."

"You keep saying they, Sakura. Can you already feel more than one or something? I thought it was too early to tell that." Ino sat down on a cushion under the window.

"No, I can't feel them yet, but I already know it's three," Sakura leaned back against the wall. "Ask Naruto; he can tell you better than I can."

"Wait, Naruto can see the future or something?"

"Or something," Sakura sighed. "I'm never going to be an active Kunoichi again if he's right. Damn Sasuke."

Ino relaxed and smiled sourly.

"What's that look for?" Sakura asked, catching the look out of the corner of her eye.

"Well..." Ino laughed derisively, "You've finally gotten what you wanted since we were kids, except now you're not so sure you can handle it anymore. Now, what was once safe to pine for, is dangerous to try and enjoy. It just figures, huh?"

Sakura didn't answer, absentmindedly stroking her stomach.

"If anything, Tsunade and your team need to know. I won't squeal to anybody important, but you need to tell them. Tsunade needs to take you off active duty, and your team needs to know why you won't be going with them anymore."

"Too late for that," Sakura sighed. "Tsunade-shisho has already ordered us a mission to start in the morning."

"Then we're going now to tell her!" Ino stood quickly, grabbing at Sakura's hands to pull her up. "We need to tell them all at once and put a stop to it!"

"But it's not that dangerous," Sakura protested. "Just Yamato and I are all that are needed."

"And we both know there is no telling exactly when babies will end up having their chakra systems start forming. Some as soon as conception and others as late as the third trimester, and you yourself said you were worried about what they might turn out to be. If that happens, you won't be able to use your own chakra for even the smallest scratch! Come on, Tsuyomi, we need to get Forehead, here, to the big boss!"

.

.

.

"Alright, Sakura, I've cooperated this far, now spill it," Tsunade grumbled behind her desk. The day had been a hard one for her in the way of paper-work. Farmers were being fought over by marketers this time of the year, causing major headaches she didn't see the need for.

Ino had to give Sakura a light shove to face the four men, boy, and two other women in the room fully. A shared look between the blond and the pinkett sealed the deal. If Sakura didn't say anything quickly, Ino would.

"I..." Sakura stuttered, then looked down at the floor boards. "I can't continue on active mission duty."

"Tell them why, Sakura," Ino said in a warning tone.

"I'm...pregnant." Sakura forced herself to say.

The eight others in the room reacted just as she had expected. Yashu was happy, evidenced by her beaming smile. Tsuyomi was confused, not understanding what the word "pregnant" meant. Sai stood by passively, knowing full well exactly how and when it had happened. Tenzou looked a bit put-out before donning a suitably congratulatory expression. Kakashi's eyes narrowed in suspect, but he didn't say anything, wanting rather to get her alone before asking the more important questions should no one else present think to do so. Naruto rushed her with a rather tight hug, and Ino fought him back.

Tsunade, however, looked very upset. Not angry, or sad, but more disappointed than anything, as well as confused. This was the last thing she had expected to happen with the rather busy schedule her apprentice kept these days between missions, the hospital, and Tsuyomi.

"Do you remember what names I told you, Sakura?" Naruto asked, ignoring the very different reactions of the other people behind him.

"What are you talking about, Naruto? You're already naming her kids when she's only just told us all she's pregnant?" Tsunade barked at the blond man. "Give her time to come to terms with it first!"

"But I already told her last year there would be two boys and a girl the first time around!" Naruto proceeded to explain to the whole group. "It was back when Karin tried to kill her that winter. Remember?"

.

.

_"What's with you?" Kakashi's voice broke his trail of thought._

_"If you think Sakura's got it bad with Tsuyomi...just wait," Naruto winked at him._

_"Hmm? You figure out a way to get her pregnant without your wife killing you?" Sai asked._

_"What?" Naruto's eyes widened. "That's not what I meant at all! It's Sasuke! He's the one that's gonna have freaking ten children with her, not me!"_

_"I'm sure you only just had some weird day-dream or something..." Tenzou commented._

_"No," Naruto shook his head. "Definitely not a day-dream."_

_._

_._

"Naruto was correct when he said it would be Uchiha Sasuke," Sai spoke up, remembering that conversation well. "He mentioned it just after Tenzou-san finished poking us all with thorns for personal entertainment that night."

"So, what?" Kakashi broke in, letting the news get to him more than it once would have, "You're saying he came here to fuck with Karin's mind then knock Sakura up and nothing more? There has to be more to it than that."

"Suigetsu was with him," Sakura nodded. "The one that aided Karin in killing--her. He didn't touch me, but he damn sure made certain I didn't get away either."

"He watched over them the whole time," Sai added. "I kept an eye on him to be sure he had no ill intentions towards Sakura."

"You knew about this?" Kakashi and Tenzou asked in near-unison before Tsunade could do the same.

Sai looked down to his feet in submission to his elders, "Only that they were intimate the one evening."

"I would have ended up walking through Konoha wearing a man's yukata with the Uchiha crest on it if it hadn't been for Sai," Sakura added, defending him as much as she could for the moment.

"And what sort of information did he want from you in return?" Tsunade asked quietly, measured.

"He wanted two things," Sakura answered honestly. "He first mentioned Karin and what had been done to her. Next he asked me why I hadn't killed him the two previous times I've had full opportunity. Then he offered me something in return... But, it wasn't this exactly. He wanted me to take the entire Uchiha estate under my name, as well as half of his financial inheritance. He said it was to be mine to do with, not any other's."

Tsunade reached into the center drawer of her desk, the shallow one that went over the leg-space, and set a single scroll on the desktop. Closing the drawer back with one hand, she unrolled the scroll with the other, revealing a land deed, the last name signed onto it reading _Uchiha Sasuke_ under the seller's column.

"I believe that explains why this found its way in here recently," Tsunade replied, watching Sakura's face as it turned to slight surprise. "He must have known it would be brought up eventually. The money, I hear, has already seen its way into your account. Did you know of this, too?"

Sakura raised her gaze to meet Tsunade's, eyes wide as she shook her head. "When did this happen?"

"Most likely before he even saw you again," Kakashi answered for her. "He knows something, too. Normally, you wouldn't be one to take such a gift, Sakura, so he forced at least part of it and left the other end hanging open for you to take... He may have even anticipated the right time of month to meet with you."

"The right time of month?" Naruto pipped back up, clueless.

"It makes sense," Tsunade agreed. "He may have gotten the proper information from Karin, and tracked Sakura's cycle based on the two previous meetings in order to predict the correct time-frame."

"Would somebody please tell me what the heck you're talking about?" Naruto asked more insistently.

"Naruto..." Ino groaned, rubbing a hand over her face. "There is a two to three day period in which a woman is most fertile. Based on ministration length and dates, one can predict at what point ovulation occurs and time intercourse to those days in order to heighten the chances of pregnancy."

"Oh... really?" Naruto asked, glancing at Yashu again as if the other woman had been holding something back from him. Yashu rolled her eyes in response.

"Then what does it mean?" Tsuyomi asked, eager to find out why all the adults around him were in so many different moods and talking about people he didn't know.

"It means you'll have more time helping Sakura-kaa-san from now on," Yashu replied. "She'll start needing more help from us all since she's going to make you a big brother now."

"So... she's gonna have a baby?"

"Exactly."

.

.

.

.

"Sakura," Tsunade fixed the younger woman with a look, glad to finally be able to have this conversation now that the room was cleared, "you do realise your life as a kunoichi is at stake here, don't you? There is still time to have a safe abortion."

"Shisho, I don't think you understand," Sakura replied with nearly as much patients as Tsunade now had recovered, "Naruto knew this would happen a year ago. One way or another, I was going to have Sasuke's children, even if I no longer felt like my whole life revolved around him. It was one of those things that no amount of trying could change. I think... even Sasuke saw it in a sense. He anticipated it for a reason."

"But why not just turn himself over to someone not biased on his case?" Tsunade asked, knowing full well Sakura was one of the very few people who could really answer that question.

"Who isn't biased one way or another now?" Sakura returned. "I have the one thing that the council want from him, and unless he can eliminate the other major threats he has been a part of since leaving, they won't think about letting him free for a moment now that his bloodline is bound to be passed on through me. They'll keep him until it's certain this new life is safe and secure, and then they'll execute him and force me into raising the children by their rules...maybe even take them from me and put them into someone else's care whom has more knowledge about how a clan works. He doesn't want that, and I don't want that. Do you?"

Tsunade shook her head. "No. I want to see any child of yours happy and under your wing, not striving to please a caregiver that most likely will hate them just because they don't like their father. Still, it's dangerous to even think about leaving you unprotected from now on if you're going to keep the child. Too many people will come after you to kill it once the news spreads. At least you won't want for physical needs."

"Shisho?" Sakura was uncertain now, topic bound to change with her next words.

"Yes?"

"I don't think I love him anymore, but I do believe he's starting to love me...What do I do?"

Tsunade thought back on the day she had once heard her own mother say those words to a mentor. She remembered almost perfectly what the man's response had been, and it rang true in these days just as much as it did then. "Love your children, Sakura. Work with what their father gives you, and respect him for the trouble he goes through to give it each day. If you have to fight him, don't do it infront of their eyes, because they need his love as much as they need yours, however his might manifest itself."

"Thank you, shisho," Sakura bowed her head slightly.

"And, Sakura?"

"Yes?"

"What makes you think that he loves you? Just out of personal curiosity."

Sakura thought back to how Sasuke had acted, and the words Suigetsu had about the Uchiha being nearly unbearable. "He's been driving his companion crazy about me for one. For another, he knows he's in lust with me now. And the third is that even though he already knew I would accept his gifts of land and money, he told me he didn't want me alone with it all. He had seen me with Tsuyomi and understood that he wanted to see me with his own child like that. When I told him that Tsuyomi was love, he told me he wanted to create that sort of love with me, one in which I could enjoy like Tsuyomi.

"He may not realise it himself yet, but that is well beyond the start of love, I think."

"I agree, although he's going at it backwards," Tsunade gave a smirk. "I just hope you don't end up regretting this in the end."

"Why would I?" Sakura smiled back. "I didn't even have to gamble to win land, money, and family. Not only that, but I now have much more time to work on Yashu's case, right? Unless you had other ideas for me in the hospital, that is, shisho."


	5. News

Alright, so it's more talk, introduction of two new characters, some Sasuke info gathering, and time for babies to arrive.

But why are there two of Sai in the same room?

Shaberu Uwasa knew his job was nearly as dangerous as being on the front lines of a war staring into the eyes of an S class enemy ninja.

As a teen, Uwasa had worked in a paper mill. Near there was the news press he had dreamed of owning one day. On his free days from the mill, the technicians would sometimes come to him for help in fixing the machines with flaws in smaller spaces only his smaller hands could reach. It had started one day when his boss had spoken to a reporter about how Uwasa had crawled into the air ducts to get over top a water jet at the paper mill where none of their older, more seasoned mechanics could get to with ladders.

Unfortunately for him, though, one of the machines he had been repairing the conveyer belt on also had a loose tray still set with the last block of lettering that had been used on it the day before. A certain series of events centered around a drunken farmer falsely accused of stealing his neighbor's calf had ended in the block of type being dislodged, tumbling all the letters and their tray down onto his fight hand.

He couldn't work with his hands any longer, even to become a reporter for the weekly editions of smaller news papers.

The story of how he had once run into Uchiha Madara was an even longer one, but it never would have happened had his hand not been crushed as a boy. Or so he convinced himself daily.

Madara had other connections, but would not share them. All he wanted of the now elderly Uwasa was to deliver all important news coming from the five Ninja villages directly to he and his subordinates once weekly. In return, Uwasa would receive an executive position at the news press.

Thus the danger and weekly complications of keeping his dream job for the past thirty years since meeting the elderly Uchiha.

These days, however, it wasn't Madara that seemed to be calling the shots. Instead, it was a young descendent of his called Sasuke that came to him or sent some underling to collect information. They only came by once every four months for information, but they paid him better for it over all.

Three months ago, Uwasa had been told to keep an ear out for any and all news coming from Konoha about a young medic apprenticed to the Hokage and anything that happened to anyone she was teamed up with when outside of the village on missions.

A month and a half ago, Uwasa had heard from more legitimate contacts that the previous rumor of the girl--Sakura it turned out--being taken off the missions roster despite her impecable records for field work thus far. The reason as revealed by the more trustworthy contact was simple. The girl had come into a large inheritance left behind by a teammate that had left town years before as well as was pregnant with his child. The girl was whoring with an S-class missing-nin, or so it seemed. Just today, even more news came over that it wasn't one, but three children she was expecting.

Though Uwasa would never dare say it out loud, he had more than a hunch that the woman was now living in the Uchiha estate not because of some other miracle escapee of Uchiha Itachi's massacre had left her behind only to come home and fuck her now and then. No, he had everything but verbal confirmation of the fact it was actually Sasuke's children she carried.

When the young Uchiha master next paid him a visit, Uwasa would do his best not to give a sly, knowing smile. He didn't want to have to add condolences to the congratulations if he did. After all, how much of a home could the young man even expect to return to after that stunt with Konoha's prisoner called Karin? No, sabotaging the only source of information Konoha had concerning what was left of Akatsuki and their contacts in such a self-incriminating manner would not make more people there back him up if he ever went home for real.

However, it was only Uwasa's job to relay the desired information. He would do so flatly and factually. He would show no emotion while relaying it unless the situation called for it. Madara and his errand boys had never appreciated emotional responses on his part. Why should Sasuke want it either?

.

.

.

.

"Shaberu-san, I trust you have information for me?"

Uwasa set his pen down to regard the cloaked figure before him. Late nights were starting to get to him now, but there was no avoiding them if he wanted the door to stay open to the only people with enough power to actually keep him in this position and a roof over his head.

"I do, Uchiha-san," Uwasa gestured for Sasuke to take a seat, and he was surprised to find that the young man actually did this time. "Although, I fear it is only on two women in Konoha. Not much besides the usual petty political squabbling coming to very little more than words between country leaders and such has come in."

"Tell me about the women," Sasuke said mono-toned and unmoving.

"Firstly, the shortest news is that you are accused of tampering with a source Konoha recently began getting information from. She is no-longer as useful as she once was, but they're keeping her just to be sure she isn't faking it. I couldn't get a surname on her, but I hear she goes by Karin."

"I know of that. Your sources are correct," Sasuke nodded slightly. "I trust the other news is regarding the Hokage's apprentice."

"It is. I also have her name now, one Haruno Sakura," Uwasa replied, leaning back into his chair as he picked his next words carefully. "I have word that she has left active duty as a kunoichi because she is pregnant with triplets. She is also unable to work in the hospital or directly with the Hokage because the children are already taxing her body. However, her finances have been taken care of, and she is moving into your family's former estate. Exactly how she came into the rights to live there and where the money is coming from, I am unsure."

"And her team?" Sasuke asked after a moment, a self-satisfied smile confirming Uwasa's thoughts from earlier in the day.

"Hatake Kakashi has been off missions for some time as I reported before, although Haruno Sakura does insist on receiving notice of his mental care and progress. Mostly, his anger response is heightened as before, but he has learned to controle it enough to be given work in the missions office until something can be done for him. It seems it is related to whatever killed Madara-sama... though that is thus far rumor only and unconfirmed by more reliable sources.

"The others have nothing worth even stirring up the rumour mill with at the moment."

"Not even Uzumaki?" Sasuke asked with slight surprise.

"Besides his encounters with you and your comrades new and old, hardly. Unless you count his son as the reason everyone within a million kilometers knows his birth-mother is expecting again. Which, you might be interested in knowing--though it is of little real importance--happens to be Haruno Sakura herself."

"She told me that some time ago," Sasuke leaned back comfortably, relaxing now of all times. "The first time in years that she hadn't tried to kill me, she told me that."

"They say there is a quiet custody battle going on between Uzumaki Naruto and the Hyuuga Clan leader. Is Haruno Sakura a branch off from them?"

Sasuke didn't mind the man's interest and blatant curiosity. It was for those quirks that he kept the man employed. "No, she is not. The boy's actual mother is, however, and Hiashi-san does not like the situation of his grandchild being raised by the man containing the Kyuubi."

"Should I gather more information on Uzumaki as I do Haruno?" Uwasa asked carefully.

"Anything he does worth knowing that isn't directly related to Haruno Sakura will be big enough on its own without you having to dig for it, though I would appreciate updates on he and Hatake Kakashi when the news comes in. The others on their team do not hold much interest for me for the time being."

"I wonder... is he the one that is taking care of her finances at the moment? Uzumaki, I mean?"

Sasuke's smirk grew a bit. "Haruno Sakura's debts and other financial needs are being paid for from her own account...which I myself have funded. I am glad it will be put to good use now that she is pregnant."

"It bothers many that she has set up in the Uchiha section. I also hear that she is even criticised for setting up in a place other than the main house. Why that is, I do not know, but considering that you seem to know a bit into the matter already, you must already know her reasoning."

"It's out of respect for the dead," Sasuke's smirk faded to a grim line again, then returned along with a slight spark in his eyes. "She must be staying in the house I left her in last time we saw one another. It would be fitting seeing as... Yes, that would make sense seeing as it's what she would like to remember."

Uwasa noticed that Sasuke wasn't talking to him any longer the moment the smirk had faded. Still, if Sasuke hadn't wanted anything to be known or guessed, he wouldn't have thought out loud. Things like that just didn't happen. Sasuke came to Uwasa for information, not the other way around. Knowing this, and also practically having the younger man confirm his more-than-a-hunch suspicions, the elder reached into a bottom left drawer and pulled out a coveted package.

"I hear in some countries it is considered appropriate to offer a father-to-be a cigar when he receives the news his woman is pregnant, and again when the child is born. Especially if it is to be a boy. Do you hold to this, Uchiha-san?" Uwasa asked, holding out three of the brown tobacco products across the desk.

"Not really," Sasuke replied, refusing to take the offered gifts. "Besides, I think you might need those more than I lately. Your official boss just died a few hours ago."

Uwasa returned the precious cigars back to their hiding place, silently grateful he didn't end up losing them after all. "Uchiha-san?"

"I killed him when he overheard a colleague of mine asking when I would return from my meeting here. The man would have outed you."

"Thank you, Uchiha-san," Uwasa bowed slightly in his seat.

"Don't thank me yet," Sasuke stood abruptly. "I'll return in a week to see what has happened with you here."

.

.

ああああああああああああああああああ

.

.

"You've got to stop this, Sakura!" Ino shoved a manilla folder into a drawer and slammed the filing cabinet closed. She then proceeded to keep herself between the files and Sakura's attempts at getting the folder back out again. "It's my job now. Not yours. Let me do it in peace! Do you want him getting seriously screwed up or something?"

"I don't want that and you know it!" Sakura huffed, crossing her arms and tapping her foot, settling to glare at Ino rather than get exhausted. "That's exactly why I need to supervise his treatment!"

"Oh enough, _children_," a man groaned from the stairwell door behind Sakura. "Neither of you are in any physical condition to be stressing your minds, too. Now both of you back off and let a real adult handle this, will you?"

"Ogawa, you've got to help me get her to stop thinking she's the only one capable of treating the people on her team," Ino begged the red-head who was picking at the ends of his long braid boredly. "She's sitting in here all day reading over things and forgetting to eat or even stretch her legs out every couple hours. The woman's pregnant and she's forgetting to eat!!! HELP ME!"

"How long have you been here, Sakura?" the surgeon asked, raising eyes nearly the same color as Naruto's to meet those of the woman in question.

Sakura refused to answer, even to turn around and look at the man.

"I saw her come in six hours ago claiming it was just for a regular pre-natal care check-up," Ino answered for her. "When I asked the woman that usually does it, she said Sakura's check-up was for next thursday. So she has to have been here this whole time."

Ogawa scanned the area for any signs of food being consumed in that time, only to find none. Also, considering the way the metal fold-out chair was situated sideways on the floor, it seemed she had only moved out of it when Ino took away Sakura's reading material of choice. Sighing and tossing his braid back over his shoulder, the man took a firm hold of Sakura's upper arm.

"You've got two choices," he told her. "Come get something for dinner with me, or I can just take you straight to the Hokage and report this to her."

"I'll take the dinner, but I want that folder back first," Sakura glared at him, then replaced the look on Ino once more.

"What does it concern?"

Ino spoke up, cutting off any lies by Sakura, "Hatake Kakashi's progress reports and treatments used as well as suggested ones."

"Idiot, girl," the red-head surgeon grunted. "You could just ask him these things yourself."

Sakura rolled her eyes. Of course she had asked Kakashi. Many times. Still, the man found ways of evading her questions or leading the conversation off to something else entirely. She didn't bother enlightening Ogawa about it, though. Ino already knew she had tried on many occasions. Perhaps Kakashi had went as far as to ask Ino and the others in the know about his condition to keep Sakura out of the whole thing.

"Come on to dinner, Sakura-chan," Ogawa pulled on her arm slightly. "You can ask him when we get there."

.

.

.

Kakashi actually had to wait on someone else this time. It certainly was an unfamiliar feeling to him. After all, how many years ago was it that he actually cared to show up on time himself? The logical part of his mind automatically produced an answer of 26, but the emotional side shoved the answer away. He didn't want to be reminded of the fact he was nearly 40 these days. Such a number wasn't often reached by Jounin, even those with a little extra smarts than the rest.

Perhaps, he thought, it was time to settle down and end his role as an active shinobi permanently, not just for however long it took to get this damn toxin out of his brain.

At least they had determined there was no physical damage to his brain itself. The toxin only stimulated more adrenaline and fuzzed up the logical end of things even more by blocking key receptors.

"You're late," Kakashi muttered when Ogawa sat down across from him, a smaller woman sliding into the booth by the red-head's side. "Is it because of your lady friend?"

"It's not smart to anger your physicians, you know," Ogawa chuckled, the woman remaining silent.

Kakashi looked up then. It was Ogawa that was late this time, not Kakashi. How was it that he could make the surgeon--

Sakura stared across the table at Kakashi, emotions hidden as she studied him in turn. Damn. She was here. He would have to pretend not to be upset with her--again.

"Hello, sensei," Sakura greeted in her softer voice, the one usually reserved for delicate times in Tsunade's presence when the blond woman might break something.

"Sakura-chan," Kakashi dipped his head in greeting. "Moving going well?"

That set her in a royal mood right away, just as he knew it would. He had pointedly said no every time she tried to bribe him into helping her. Anything to do with the Uchiha put a fire in his blood for the past few months, even the gift he'd born for the past 26 years. If he hadn't gotten infected, Sakura and the rest of them would have been out on another mission when Karin was attacked. Then, he wouldn't have lost Sakura to the traitorous boy's children.

He knew most of the anger was stirred up because of the toxins, but it wouldn't get amplified this badly if there wasn't some anger there to begin with. That's how he figured it. Everything else that seemed to make him outwardly angry anymore was something that had at least been a decent bother before Madara's death.

"I want to be allowed full access to the files concerning your current course of treatments," Sakura replied, ignoring his comment after a momentary pursing of her lips.

"Why? So you can pass on the knowledge of the presumed-comming-cure on to Sasuke-kun?" Kakashi mocked. "I don't think so. He chose his own damn path."

"I want to know so that I can help!" Sakura raised her voice, smacking the table hard as she could without breaking it through shear physical force. Needless to say, her behavior caused a small stir in the little diner.

"And people say I fly off the handle a bit fast lately," Kakashi grunted, leaning back in the booth, forcing an equally angry response away. He might have hit her otherwise.

"Don't you want to stop having to call on all your will to keep from killing the birds in the nest outside your window at five thirty in the morning every day?" Sakura replied knowingly.

"They wouldn't be so damn noisy every morning if you didn't come by and wake them up all the time."

"Caught!" Sakura pretended to have been wounded in the chest for a second before sobering up again.

"Would you believe I walked in on her fighting Ino over your files today?" Ogawa asked, steering the conversation back into the correct direction. "She looked like she wanted to body-slam Yamanaka-san."

A waitress came to their table, slightly out-of-breath but doing well to cover it up with a confident, friendly voice that carried well over the chatter of the other diner partons. "Hello? How are you? I'm Mayonaka, your server for the evening. Can I start you all off with something to drink?"

.

.

.

Sakura let herself into the water of the women's onsen carefully. Even though most women would have been able to do so with much more ease at five months pregnant, not Sakura. The three children made for a much larger belly than a typical one, and getting out would most likely be that much harder. Still, there were other women here tonight, any of whom would be sure to take pity on a woman with child and help Sakura up before being on their own way. She'd seen even some of the most snooty upper house women of several clans suddenly forget their status difference and all previous thoughts to help an unknown woman with a baby either in her belly or in her arms. The men weren't usually ones to just drop their schedules for an hour to help out, but many women would.

Still, some of these women wouldn't dare come near her these days. Once upon a time, she had been a regular young kunoichi the women of any status -- clan or not -- wouldn't mind chatting with for a bit of news of random gossip. When the news spread that she was pregnant, the chatting that she did with the same women at the onsen had turned around onto her and whom the father was and if he could support her now that she couldn't work like she used to, and other things like that. Not many tried too hard to get a straight answer about the babies' father, since on rare occasions kunoichi did end up pregnant on a mission even though they thought they were protected. Usually, an abortion followed such cases, but even then there were times when the women would keep the child. She didn't mind people thinking that way if they didn't have the real right to know the truth like her teachers and teammates.

Now that she was moving into the old Uchiha complex, however, things became very clear to the women here. They got it without a hitch now, even if their male counterparts still didn't have a clue. Gossip correlating with fact had screwed Sakura's chances of help tonight.

Still, she didn't much care. She still had enough pride and normal strength to get the job done, if a bit awkwardly.

Away from most of the chattering women, Sakura sank down onto a bench that ringed most of the onsen walls and splashed a little water onto her face and into her hair.

"Mind if I join you, miss?"

Sakura opened damp lashes and looked behind her to see Mayonaka, the waitress from earlier in the day looking down at her questioningly. Remembering from a small bit of chatting the woman with both midnight colored hair and eyes had been able to do with Sakura, Kakashi, and Ogawa that Mayonaka had only just moved out this way, Sakura didn't mind the intrusion. Questions that Mayonaka could come up with would be like the ones most of the village women asked right when word spread about Sakura being pregnant several months ago. It would be refreshing to hear those kinds of questions again.

"Sure," Sakura lightly smacked the water beside her right shoulder as if patting a cushiony seat for offering. "Come on in."

"Thanks!" Mayonaka beamed at Sakura before making her splashy way into the steamy water with a sigh. "Oh this feels so good! My feet and back are killing me! Could you believe how busy it was in there today?"

"I guess so," Sakura smiled softly. "I don't really eat-out much except when the team goes to Ichiraku's. It's our usual spot because the owner adores Naruto like his own kid... And it's always busy, let me tell you! Best ramen you'll find in all Fire according to many!"

"And so I have been told by many," Mayonaka giggled lightly. "But who's this Naruto person?"

"Ah," Sakura shook her head, reminding herself once again that Mayonaka wasn't a local. "He's a lot of things, but above all he's one of my two best friends in the world... We've been on the same team since we were twelve, and in the same class before that since we were five. Blond. Loud. Wears bright orange and black most of the time. Big blue eyes, and whisker marks on his cheeks that have nothing to do with a beard."

"Oh, I think I saw someone like that come in to the diner yesterday," Mayonaka said after a moment's thought. "He's got a little boy, right? Tsu something..."

"Tsuyomi," Sakura nodded affirmatively.

"Right," the dark haired woman slipped down to wet all of her hair and work it into the roots before sitting back up again gracefully, just before wincing and grabbing at her back in pain. "Ow!"

"Here, let me--" Sakura started to offer to work out the kinks in the woman's back, but was cut off by a angry whisper from behind.

_"Don't go over there, girl. That's that Uchiha's slut the nice lady is talking too. Poor woman doesn't even know she's getting mixed up with the riffraff of the town."_

Mayonaka seemed to have heard the comment as well, her face contorting into an expression of disgust. "I doubt whoever they're talking about like that deserves it. She's probably got worse skeletons in her closet than the poor girl she's talking about. What do you think?"

Sakura was nervous now... this was definitely an opening Mayonaka would almost have to take whether it was a conscious decision or not. "Uh... They're talking about...me."

"Huh?" Mayonaka looked back at Sakura quickly and curiously. "Oh, is it because of your kid? They're probably just jealous you've got what they want or something like that. Right?"

Shaking her head, Sakura replied, "I wish it were that simple. Listen, maybe it's best you don't get seen with me too much, for your own social standings around here. I'm stuck in with a really mixed up bunch most of the village don't want to understand, especially the clans that tend to have a lot of ninja in their houses. It's a bit offensive to them about what's going on with me and their father."

"Like I care?" Mayonaka asked in return, a very determined expression replacing the earlier one of disgust. "My sister and I aren't very much liked by our clan because of her turning out to be able to use chakra and stuff like that. They really hated me for talking Shinju into coming here to study, so I brought her here myself and haven't looked back. If they don't like you, it's because they either fear you or envy the gifts you've been given. I don't see any other reason for these people to be like that to you. Kunoichi or not, you're here to protect people like them, right?"

Sakura thought on it for a while. Yes, a bit of what Mayonaka said was true in here case. Of the kunoichi and some of the more bold women in the village, Sakura was hated for having gained everything they had dreamed of achieving on their own or dared think possible just by staring at Sasuke's back all day long as children. The neighboring clan compounds had been vying for the territory of the Uchiha for quite some years. Now that the official deed was in Sakura's hands, as well as half the clan's money, they were bound to resent her.

The others, though... Because of Itachi's massacre and Sasuke having also turned his back on Konoha, Sakura was hated even more for her acceptance of the events...for her inside knowledge as they liked to say. Not to mention she had no knowledge of how a clan worked from an insider's point of view, or even a normal, but large, family to have come from. She had no influence on anything before becoming the Hokage's apprentice as far as they were concerned. And, also, as far as they were concerned, the only reason Sasuke would have to pick her over the other "more capable" girls was due to the fact she had no kekke genkai running in her known family history, no signs of developing one herself, and completely recessive genes that would allow those of the father to win out over her own and strengthen the chances of their children unlocking all of their father's potential. Sakura, in that case, was nothing more than Sasuke's tool. Above all, she hated them for that assumption.

"That depends on how much you know when it comes to their father's family history," Sakura grumbled. Mayonaka would have some idea of being a bit of a family black-sheep, so it reasoned then that she could sympathise with Sakura's village black-sheep issue.

"Well, the other girls at work have given me gossip on just about every major family in the village this past week I've worked with them," Mayonaka shrugged. "I couldn't believe how scared some of them were that that blond guy you were talking about-- uh Naruto-- would get sat in their section until they told me that the Hyuuga clan had it in for the kid because of his mother. I don't get it, though. That pretty brunet woman seemed happy and kind enough, not at all like there was any trouble with her family."

"That's because she's not Tsuyomi's mother," Sakura replied. "One of the Hyuuga main-house was, and her father is head of the clan. He hated Naruto from the day my friend was born even though his daughter loved him from the first moment she set eyes on him. Now Tsuyomi has to pay the price."

Mayonaka caught the worried way Sakura caressed her swollen abdomen and got a bit of a spark in her eye. "Ah, so that's it, then! Has he got a son that you're involved with or something?"

"No, but they are related in a historical sense... The Uchiha are a branch from the same family the Hyuuga came from."

"And there's another surprise!"

"Hmm?"

"You're the first person not to whisper or spit that name out I've heard since I got here three weeks ago! Why does everybody dance around that clan anyway? It's not like you ever see any of them around, but I did hear they founded the village police, right?"

"Yeah," Sakura sighed, eyes set back on the water before her. "That's because only one of them is left, and that only happened within the past year, too. I mean, the second of the last three died a couple months before the babies came into play, so..."

"Oh, wow... did they die out like the Senju did? They used to be a big bunch where I'm from, but I heard that after Konoha was founded, they just sort of... died off, you know? I was lucky Tsunade-oba-san could help Shinju and I out a bit by putting us up in her uncle's old place for a while..."

"Tsunade-sama is your aunt?" Eyes wide, Sakura couldn't help the turn of topic.

"Sorta," Mayonaka blushed lightly. "Don't let that get out, though. Most people know that after the Senju took off for here that the branch members my family comes from started to resent them, so... If the wrong people hear we're related, things could get ugly for Shinju at school."

"Well, take it from me personally, Tsunade-sama is the best teacher I've ever had, even if she's rough and tough to please."

Mayonaka looked at Sakura as if seeing her for the first time. "Wait a minute! Are you Haruno Sakura?"

Sakura nodded in agreement.

"So then... WOW... No wonder she was extra upset last time I talked to here before bringing Shinju here. It was right when you announced you were pregnant when she wrote that letter!"

"Huh?" It was now Sakura's turn to be doing double-takes.

"She told me she was pissed because one of her best was taken out of commission because of a missing shinobi. I thought she meant the woman was hurt, not pregnant!"

Sakura threw back her head and laughed whole heartedly, drawing quite a few uncomfortable stares among a few glares which quickly tempered her amusement. "Leave it to Shisho to get so upset she can't even keep official Konohagakure political business out of personal mail..."

"I don't see how it can be political or official, but if you say so..."

Sakura smirked and shook her head, thinking back on just how upset she had made Tsunade, but at the soft and hidden encouragement the old lady had backed her with on each attempt by the council to get a hand in Sakura's newly acquired land and money as well as how the children should be raised, if they were even to be raised by her hand at all. Tsunade and one council man had stood with Sakura the whole way. _Kami bless them,_ Sakura prayed.

"It's a very touchy subject with the council, these three. Each of them have their own ideas on how they should live. One old lady even wants them dead, but none of the others would allow that to be spoken of again. That woman wants a lot of people dead for one random reason to the next, though. Anyway, these kids are definitely going to be the start of rebuilding the Uchiha clan, which is something both their father and the council have wanted since it was wiped out. It's just me that's the problem. I have the keys in my hand and they don't. They also don't have any say in whether or not they get any brothers and sisters after this, and that pisses them off to no end since their father could get killed at any day and the only other person capable of teaching them about their family's legacy isn't in the best mental condition at the moment thanks to the person who killed off the eldest of the remaining three after the massacre."

"I thought you said their father was the only one left, though?"

"Yeah, but my old sensei got it when he was a kid from another guy on his team. It's kinda sad how it happened, so I won't go into detail, but I can bet you know who I'm talking about now, right?"

"Sharingan no Kakashi?" Mayonaka questioned, eyes wider.

"Exactly!"

"Woah, this is getting a bit complicated here, and so weird!" she leaned her head back to re-wet her hair. "I mean, we know of the same people, even personally know some of the same ones, but we end up meeting in a diner of all places and having no idea until some bitch makes an off-handed comment about you."

"Yeah, strange, but stranger things have happened, I'm sure."

.

.

ああああああああああああああああああ

.

.

Why did period cramps have to get so bad sometimes? Sure, they were random contractions of the uterus to help flush out old blood and such from the body and a regular part in keeping the inner muscles working properly, but Sakura didn't understand the reason why they had to truly hurt this much.

It didn't hit her until the sixth not-so-random but timed cramp hit her that she woke up enough to remember she certainly wasn't on her period. How the heck could she be? She was seven months pregnant! She shouldn't be cramping like this, right? Not in a regular sort of way, at least...

Though she didn't know what it was exactly, she knew it wasn't right and feared moving much without someone competent in these sorts of things telling her she could or should. How, then, could she get hold of someone?

"Tsuyomi!" Sakura called calmly through her cracked door and down the hall to the child's room. As long as he hadn't gotten up for a late snack like he sometimes did, she had a chance of getting his attention. "Tsuyomi, I need you to do me a really big favor, baby! Can you come here, please? Tsuyomi!"

Muttering and moaning filled the room along with a little head of blond hair on the child at the foot of her bed. "What's wrong, Kaa-san?"

"I need you to do me a big, big favor and wake up the lady two doors down. Remember her? Mayonaka-san?"

"Yeah... But won't she be mad at me?"

"Not if you tell her I need some help. She'll know who to go get, and you can stay with Shinju-kun there for the night. Okay? Now hurry up, please, we need to do this quickly, or I might start to hurt really bad."

"You're hurting?" Tsuyomi woke straight up at that.

"It's not too bad right now, but yes, Tsuyomi-kun, I am hurting. Can you tell Mayonaka-san for me?"

"Right!"

Watching Tsuyomi bound down the hall in only his pajama-shorts, Sakura knew she didn't have long to wait before the boy summoned help. She had told him three months prior that there would be a day when she would be hurting and need help. If it came in the night and he was able to, she would need him to go to the place two-doors down and get the lady that lived there to come help.

Though Tsuyomi didn't fully understand, he knew enough that he didn't want Sakura hurting because she was his Kaa-san and she was nice to him. He thought it might be because she was sick, but then she had told him it was because of his siblings, and he was angry at them for a moment. Now, he would just do as he was told since there wasn't any time to think of anything else.

.

.

.

Sakura looked incredulously at the woman standing by her hospital bedside. "But it's only been just over 34 weeks!"

"Which is normal for triplets," Suiren replied. "You're having these babies, and you're having them within the next 24 hours, I'm estimating."

Sakura groaned and let her head fall back on the pillow. And here she was hoping this was false-labor like when Tsuyomi was at about 37 weeks. No such luck, apparently. "Fine, just tell Mayonaka to make the calls. Almost ev--everybody," she breathed through a slightly harder cramping, "is home right now. They all promised they'd be here, too."

_All but Kakashi-sensei, that is,_ Sakura groaned inwardly. _And now I'll have to actually really move in to the bigger house. My old apartment isn't going to hold me, Tsuyomi, and these three comfortably._

Hours passed by before delivery was in full swing, water broken by hand, and rough contractions starting to make Sakura's lips purse slightly with each wave.

Naruto had asked to be allowed in with Tsunade and Ino, but Sakura had soundly yelled out that if he came in the room for this delivery she'd pummel him into the ground the second her chakra was at the disposal of her hands once again. She clearly remembered how much more nervous he had made her during Tsuyomi's birth just by being nervous and full of questions the whole time she was working on just getting the child to the world, questions that should have been asked before she went into full labor but he didn't think of until right then. Sakura was not going to allow that a second time. Besides, it was better off he was there to try and explain all the excitement in the waiting room along with Yashu to keep him patient while answering the child.

The first child born was a girl, eyes black as night and bright red hair, kicking and squalling her little 5.2 pound body even while being swaddled up by a nurse. The news of her unexpectedly healthy size put doubts into the minds of all present about the condition of the other two, even though no one would speak them. Still, there wasn't but a couple minutes before the contractions began building again for the second child's turn.

"Damn it, let me go!"

Though Sakura didn't hear the cursing coming from the other side of the door, most others with her did, briefly drawing their attention to the window there. It looked as though Sai was attempting to break the holds of Kakashi and Naruto. Whatever the problem Sai had, Tsunade and Ino shared a secret smile. As much as Kakashi may have protested the fact that Sasuke was the father of these three, he would still be here when they were born.

"Could someone please go figure out what the hell is going on out there?" Sakura grunted, having heard the commotion when voices on the other side of the door became so loud that it was like they were right in the room shouting.

"Sai wants in, it seems," Ino explained, pushing a strand of Sakura's hair back from her face while Tsunade winced at her fingers being squeezed harder than normal for a woman without any use of her chakra. "Kinda strange, don't you think?"

"Ino..." Sakura gathered her breath. "He's not supposed to be in Konoha."

"Crowning," spoke Suiren, ready to support the newly emerging head of black hair. "Let's see about picking up the pace. Just two or three more, and you'll have got it."

"But then who?" Ino looked back at the door, then at the face of the settling baby girl Tsunade had the opportunity to be holding now instead of getting her fingers shredded by Sakura's nails. "Oh, Kami, remember who we said he looked like!"

"Let him in!" Sakura yelled through one of her pushes.

Seeming to have heard the odd request, Kakashi and Naruto let up their grips on Sai's arms. The door opened and shut quickly as the pale man was told to stand a bit back while a free nurse could get him scrubs and cleaned up properly for the situation.

"Get your ass over here and give me something else to hold on to for the next one," Sakura demanded not long after being introduced to the small boy being rubbed down right on her chest after weighing in at a whole pound less than his sister. Not good news, especially if the third was even smaller. Worry showed on her face as the contractions started in even quicker than before. She didn't even have time to register the slight staring contest between the man on her left and the woman on her right, both of whom were going to be leaving the place with nasty gouges on their fingers from her uncut nails.

.

.

.

Tenzou, Sai, and Shikaku appeared in the waiting room to the Hokage's office, only to be turned away by a substitute secretary who claimed both Yashu and Tsunade were at the hospital. When questions came, the man replied that it had something to do with Sakura and that was all he was allowed to say. Two of the three had no hesitation in going straight to the hospital to find all three mentioned women. The third only left behind them in a bit of confusion.

"It's probably the babies," Tenzou said just before Shikaku could ask.

"Oh..." Shikaku replied a bit dismally. He didn't like to think about those kids and the impact they would have on such a pretty girl's life, or the impact they already had just by being created in the first place. He could even remember a time when he'd wished idly that the pink haired girl would have turned her eye on his son rather than the damn Uchiha boy.

"Is it normal for there to be issues this soon, senpai?" Sai asked. "I believed that women did not give birth until nearly a full nine months had passed. It has only been just over seven for Sakura-kun."

"I don't know. Shikaku-san?"

"Shikamaru didn't come until practically ten months down the road, but they said he was late, so don't ask me," Shikaku replied with a shake of his head.

Of all the questions running through Sai's mind, there was one thing he really wanted answered that day when he and the other two were allowed in to give their congratulations to the new mother.

Why was a nearly perfect mirror-immage of himself holding a blue wrapped baby sitting at the foot of Sakura's hospital bed trying to convince her to name one of the boys Itachi?


	6. Trust

"Absolutely not!" Sakura balked at the suggestion. "After _him_?"

"I meant it as more for my grandfather, not my brother, Sakura," "Sai" shrugged, noticing how strong the fragile hand around his pinky finger already was despite the child being under weight. "It's not my fault my brother got named for him."

"But still! How many people will understand that?" Sakura groaned. "Most people associate the name 'Uchiha Itachi' with your brother, not your grandfather. It's not a torture I'd really like to hand over to our son."

"Sakura-kun, that is not myself sitting with you." the real Sai warned, coming in through the door with two other ANBU still wearing their masks, unlike Sai who had taken it off the moment they'd set foot back within the village boarders.

The false Sai slowly stood, still holding the dark haired baby in his arms, unsure of what to do. Of course, Sakura knew the truth, but the man standing opposite him--conveniently blocking off escape rout #1-- sure wouldn't like the circumstances any.

"Here, Sakura," the false Sai handed over the smallest of the triplets back to its mother. "I think it's time I left."

The two masked ANBU waited for the very moment the child was passed to his mother to attack the disguised person. Cat came from the right, and Deer lunged from the left, attempting to pin him in. However, the disguised man jumped straight back, anticipating their movements, smashed through the hospital window and teleported right out of sight, sound, and smell.

A nurse had heard the shattering glass and set off an alarm when she saw the two ANBU barely miss colliding with one another, a third person escaping, and two others blocking off the three babies from any potential harm. Thus, not but two minutes later, Sakura found herself surrounded by police, other ANBU she didn't recognise, the two she did, and a handful of others that had heard the message one way or other and came to check things out themselves.

The babies were awake and screaming each time someone got too near them that wasn't in a decent mood. The babies' screaming put Sakura into an even more foul mood because people neither she, or the children recognised were stopping to coo at the newborns every few seconds and rouse them up when anger radiating off of Sai, Tenzou, or the Deer ANBU weren't enough to keep them from sleeping like they should have been.

"SILENCE!"

Sakura's balled fists shook at her sides, her eyes were squeezed shut tightly, and her throat was now even more sore than before thanks to having to shout so damned loud and end up scaring her children yet _again_. At least it got the desired effect. All mouths were hanging open or shut tight, and they were all completely quiet.

"How many of you does it actually take to fix a window and question me? Seriously?" Sakura demanded. "Now, leave my babies alone, give me some peace, and someone find us all a different room if there is absolutely no way of getting all of you idiots out of here within the next five seconds!"

.

.

ああああああああああああああああああ

.

.

Sakura lay peacefully in the maternity ward, sleeping away after feeding three hungry mouths and stuffing her own belly full of acceptable foods according to the nurses. Kakashi was not allowed in to see her at the moment, but was invited to ask after her again in an hour when it was time to feed the babies again. He decided to wait. He had to speak with her about what Tenzou had told him earlier, as well as what Ino and Yashu had come up with together.

Already, he noticed a difference in himself. One day's time had passed since the first course, and Kakashi found himself meditating less in the evenings in order to calm down enough for sleep. It was also why he felt confident enough to actually speak to her face to face again about Sasuke despite the fact that he knew almost for certain Sasuke was the one to have caused all the commotion earlier in the day.

"Miss," Kakashi reached out and took the elbow of the nurse who had turned him away a few minutes before as she passed by again.

"Yes?" she asked politely.

"Can you tell me...if I might see the babies while Sakura sleeps? I didn't get a decent look yesterday, and I'm curious what names she settled on."

"That will have to wait, sir," the nurse gave him a sad smile. "The babies aren't in the best condition right now, and as far as their names go... Well I doubt she even had anything really picked out before they were born. It's still a toss up on the girl, and the boys have a whole range of names being suggested."

"Figures," Kakashi rolled his eye, sat back down and let the nurse back to her rounds. Not caring one bit that he sat in the middle of the maternity ward and right next to the pediatrics, the man pulled out a brightly colored book with the red banned symbol on the back and started reading. For the next 42 minutes, his whole world centered on the book alone, barely even noticing when two blue and one pink squirming things were rolled passed him and into Sakura's room.

Again, another muttered "figures" came from his lips as he closed the book tightly, remembering to come back to page 87 when the occasion arose before following the nurses into the room without an invitation.

"Sakura-san," the woman from earlier gently rousted the sleeping new mother. "It's time."

"Mmh, already?" Sakura's bleary eyes opened a fraction.

"Yes, miss," the nurse smiled sweetly. "And I have good news about your daughter. She's healthy enough to go home. First assumptions were wrong."

"And my boys?" Sakura asked, more awake now. "What about them?"

"I'm afraid not, Sakura-san. The smaller one is on the line right now."

Kakashi looked over to the newborns awaiting their turn at the breast, first spotting the girl whom was obviously larger and more active than her brothers. Yes, she was much like Kurenai's baby at that stage. The boys, though, were a bit sluggish compared to their sister. One of them, marked as being only 3.5 lb.s on his wrist from birthweight, was hooked up to a heart monitor and barely putting any effort into life at all. Though he didn't know what pace a child's heart should be at when only a day old, he knew it shouldn't be skipping like that. Yes, that one was in danger of not making it out of the first week alive.

Sakura would be devastated. Would Sasuke care as long as the other one lived? Hopefully, questions like that might get cleared up at least a little if Kakashi ever got the chance to speak with Sakura today.

"Kaka-sensei," Sakura brought his attention away from the smallest child and back to her. "You do realise I'm breast-feeding, right?"

"Yeah," he shrugged, then he realised she might be uncomfortable with him seeing her chest or something like that. "Don't worry about it. I walked in on Kurenai doing that more than once, not to mention Mikoto twice, and probably would have seen Naruto's mom more than that. Besides, they're just breasts, Sakura. I've seen my fair share."

"You seem happier today," Sakura grinned, shamelessly pulling open the top of her hospital gown. Well, maybe she wasn't concerned about him seeing her as much as him being embarrassed about it himself. "What's the good news?"

"Something's working," Kakashi gave her an eye crinkling smile.

"Good! I _told_ Ino things would get better if I got back on with them!"

"Yeah, Yashu did come back and tell me it was something to do with your suggestions. Thanks, by the way."

In the poorest health, the smallest child was handed over first, only to have a finger stuck in his mouth rather than a teat. "Why do you do that, anyway?"

"Do what?" Sakura asked, unsure of what he was talking about.

"Stick your finger in first. If he's hungry, shouldn't you just give him your breast?"

Sakura blushed a bit, "Not if he's going to have his tongue where it should be. If I don't do this, he will suckle wrong and not get as much. He needs more than the others right now, too."

"Ah," Kakashi nodded, continuing to watch how she prepped the child's mouth to correctly suck on her nipples. "I hear you still haven't settled on names."

"Only because so many people have to put in their own two cents and I can't make up my mind which is best," she sighed, leaning back and aligning the baby with her chest carefully. "I wanted to look through family trees or something to see if there were any decent names there. I do have one name I'm almost set on for one of the boys, but I figured it might be a good idea to get your say-so on it first."

She wanted his opinion? Seriously? "Okay... I don't see what help I'm going to be that nobody else has, though."

"I don't want to do it without your permission, sensei," Sakura replied, catching his eye with her own, "but if this one makes it, I want to call him after your old teammate."

"Obito?" Kakashi asked, unsure if she really meant it.

Sakura nodded. "Yes."

"Sakura, when that baby makes it out of here alive and screaming louder than the others, you'll know he deserves it," Kakashi sat on the foot of the hospital bed and gave her foot a little squeeze through the covers.

.

.

.

.

In all reality, the name Itachi seemed to be pretty common in the Uchiha family as far as Sakura could tell. There was one or two in each generation of the three larger family trees she had gotten Ino to dig up. Animal names were most common of all for the boys. Colors came in first for the girls once one looked passed all the other familiar names found in every household somewhere along the line more than five times.

"Got anything good yet, forehead?" Ino asked, taking a break from copying down names she personally found interesting.

"Yeah, I think I have something worth it," replied Sakura. "The smaller boy is Obito, no questions asked. Baby girl is Akaiko for certain thanks to her hair, and well... You might have noticed how common the name Itachi was, right?"

Ino's eyes bulged a bit, "You're not seriously going to name him--"

"Yes I am," Sakura cut her off. "Besides, it was the only thing that came to Sasuke's mind the last time he was here. He said the kid looked like his grandfather's old baby photos."

"So?"

"So! Look here, pig! Itachi was his grandfather's name! See?" Sakura held up the family tree currently resting in her lap. "Fugaku's father's name was Itachi, and Mikoto's father's name was Sasuke. They're both named after their grandfathers."

"Then why not name him Fugaku?" Ino asked. "Better by far than being associated with that mind-fuck brother of Sasuke's, right?"

"Better he be associated with his uncle than with his grandfather, I think," Sakura answered with a slight curl to her lip. "At least Itachi showed his true colors in the end. Not Fugaku."

"He killed off everyone Sasuke ever loved!"

"Because his family fucked him over mentally but he still had enough love for Sasuke that he left Sasuke alive and gave him more powers with his Sharingan as a death bead present!"

"Sakura," Ino sobered up rather than continue yelling, "It's your son. It's your right to name him. Still, to think of how he will be viewed just for having that name... It's disgusting to think about."

"Naruto's a stronger person because of what people did to him."

"Naruto has security issues piling over security issues."

"He has real friends, and the respect of many more," Sakura added.

"And he still has the distrust of all the civvies around except for Ichiraku-san and Ayame!" Ino corrected. "Look, Sakura, they'll already be suspect enough just for carrying the name Uchiha. Do you really want it that much worse for the smallest of them?"

"I want him to be pushed to become as strong as he can, even if it means giving him a name he might not like. It's the name his father chose, and that's how it's going to be as far as I'm concerned," Sakura set her face, reached over to the still unfinished birth certificate, and put down Itachi in the first name space.

.

.

ああああああああああああああああああ

.

.

Shaberu Uwasa's face blanched for a moment. Was Mayonaka telling him correctly? The Haruno woman had actually named one of her sons after Sasuke's brother? Talk about bold. She could be screwing the kid over for life. Oh well, at least his parents hadn't done anything stupid to him like that. Then again, the worst mind fucks in his family were a couple drug addicts that got what they deserved--life behind bars.

"I mean it, Uwasa-oji," Mayonaka sighed. "And would you believe all Tsunade-oba did was laugh?"

"And now you see why we don't approve of Ninja being in the family anymore," replied Uwasa. "They get hit in the head too many times."

"I don't appreciate that determination," a man retorted, coming in through the main office door. "Shaberu-san, Mayonaka-chan. I heard you speaking of Tsunade-sama?"

"Yes," Mayonaka bowed her head slightly. "I saw the birth certificates last week when they got passed over to Tsunade-oba for finishing up."

"And?" Sasuke asked, taking a seat on the sofa across from her. "Their names?"

Uwasa and Mayonaka shared a glance. "Well, the girl is Akaiko. The smallest is Obito, and it apparently has something to do with Kakashi...."

The pause was a bit too heavy for his tastes. "And?"

"The... the middle one is called...Itachi."

Sasuke's smirk startled both people. That short smirk turned into a full on smile at their incredulous looks.

"Uchiha-san?" Mayonaka asked, clearly uncertain as to how to respond.

"I hoped she would listen to me. She did," Sasuke leaned back and relaxed a little. "I bet Tsunade is rather upset, then?"

"Not so much her as that blond girl... Ino, I think."

"Ah, Yamanaka Ino," Sasuke's face soured. "She's got her priorities in a jumble, still, I'm guessing."

.

.

.

.

"Kaa-san, where are we going?" Tsuyomi asked Yashu, the brunet bouncing him on her hip a bit.

"To where your Kaa-san Sakura lives now," Yashu replied, then added. "Oi, you're getting to heavy for me to carry you like this now! Come on, walk on your own two feet for a change, will you?"

Tsuyomi grumbled, "But, _Kaa-san_, I like it when you carry me!"

"Well you're going to be starting school in a year," Yashu reminded. "How do you expect me to carry you all though your school days? You'll be made fun of all the time."

Tsuyomi gave her a dirty look as she set him down, then resolved a new plan in his mind. If she wouldn't carry him, and if his other mom couldn't carry him, and his dad was too busy to carry him, he'd just make his teachers to it! A new smile lighting his face, the boy ran circles around Yashu the rest of the way. Whether the running was making him more hyper, or just burning off extra energy he'd somehow built up in the past five minutes, Yashu didn't know.

"Now listen, baby," Yashu knelt down to speak to her son face to face before they entered the old Uchiha complex, "Your ototo Obito is still really weak. It's best if you don't try to hold him, but if he grabs for your hand, it's alright. Sakura might let you hold ototo Itachi, though. As far as Imoto Akaiko is concerned, she has already started to turn into a rough one. I think you might even get to feed her her bottle if you're good."

"Kaa-san, what does ototo and imoto mean?"

"You are their ani--their big brother," Yashu replied honestly. "So that means that the boys are your ototora, or ototo for just one little brother, and the girl is your imoto, your little sister. See?"

"Wow, three new words today!"

Yashu smiled. Naruto had come up with the "word for the day" game as a way to both help Tsuyomi's vocabulary grow and to keep the child busy. It worked like a charm. Every morning, Yashu, Naruto, or Sakura would come up with a new word to teach the child, and then he would be questioned about it that evening when he went to bed. The next morning, they would again ask him about the previous day's word before moving on to the next one. Usually, they kept the words related or sounding similar to make the transitions easier. Sometimes he only got confused and frustrated, but now--a year later--he was better at figuring things out.

"So, yesterday you taught me ani--big brother--and now today ototo, ototora, and imoto... little brother, little brothers, and little sister!"

"Very good, Tsuyomi-chan. Are you going to tell you Kaa-san Sakura about it?"

"Duh! She has to know before she can tell me tomorrow's word, right?"

Yashu laughed out loud then, holding the gate open for her son, then sobered up a bit. "Not this time, but maybe in a few weeks. You won't be staying with her for some time, Tsuyomi. The babies need her attention more than you do right now."

Tsuyomi crossed his arms and planted his feet, looking sullenly at the ground. "That's not fair. I came first!"

Yashu certainly understood where he was coming from with that one, except...her little brother had died, and her sister after that. She realised now that if her mother had had any help, then her little siblings would have gotten the attention they deserved. Still, to this day, Yashu felt responsible for commanding so much of her mother's attention back then, being such a brat that precious time and people were taken from their little family.

"And since you're older than them," Yashu looked down at the boy, bringing his eyes back up to hers again, "you should help her watch over them and protect them. It's practically your job as their big brother to make sure they're safe and get everything they need. That way, your Kaa-san can focus on giving them and you what you want. She will be grateful for all the help you can bring, and she'll show that appreciation. It's just something you have to work for, though. If you're not careful, then you'll just end up hurting those who love yo the most."

"So... I gotta be like Tou-san? Right?" the child asked. "He's always protecting us so that we can be together and be happy. And that makes him happy, right?"

"Exactly!" Yashu beamed down at the little blond ball of regained energy. "And you love your tou-san for doing that, too, right? Doesn't it make you happy to know he's happy?"

Tsuyomi nodded.

"Then they'll be happy to have someone like you watching their backs and keeping them safe. That's what little brothers and sisters are for, to teach us responsibility and what real love is all about!"

.

.

.

.

Three cribs in a row, one big dresser, a bin full of toys the children weren't old enough for yet, and lots of diapers, wipes, powders and the like all managed to fit into the room and still leave some floor space. How the house could have so much space in a room that wasn't the master suit was beyond Sakura. And this wasn't even the main house!

No, that one was three doors down, and Sakura refused to enter it. Sure, all the bodies had been removed and given a mass tomb off grounds, but she didn't know if anything else was touched in the small amount of space Sasuke would have lived in before leaving the place behind for the small apartment he'd taken up living in about a year after the deaths. While pregnant, she certainly knew she didn't want to walk in and find mold, mildew, dust, and old blood in sealed off rooms that hadn't been touched in thirteen, fourteen years. Number one, it was a health hazard. Number two, her stomach had gotten so weak at just the mention of blood when pregnant with Tsuyomi, she didn't want to chance it this time despite the fact that it would be old, brown stains by now if it was there in the first place.

There were no deaths recorded to have taken place inside of this particular home other than the death of its builder sixty years prior even though it was right at the heart of the Uchiha complex. It's owners, Uruchi and Teyaki, had died outside, tending to flower boxes or so Sasuke had muttered once years ago.

Inoichi had sent pre-planted flower in a new set of boxes to replace the old ones as a baby gift. Strange to think of flower boxes as a gift for babies, Sakura thought and asked Ino. Ino laughed about it and told Sakura that the reason the man had opened a flower shop was all because Ino had taken a very early interest in them and it was the only way that he could teach her colors properly. It was her early fascination with them that got him interested and was now supplementing the income her mother had once brought in.

She didn't hear the rapping on the door, the wood was so thick. Yes, this house was made of sturdier stuff than she was used to, and for good reason. The previous people could afford it all. The doorbell was an actual bell rather than an electric one added in when the building was first wired up maybe sixty years prior, and she only barely noticed that, thinking at first it must have been from somewhere outside the complex that someone like Naruto or Anko must have set off. Leave it to them to be so loud as to penetrate the relative peace and quiet here.

"Sakura-kun?"

Sakura nearly jumped out of her skin, whirled around with a back fist that didn't quite connect, and found herself steadied by a large hand on her shoulder. Taking a moment to actually look at the intruder, she didn't know whether to feel thankful he'd caught her, or mortified she'd struck out so recklessly.

She stuttered instead, "Ya...Yamato-taichou...what? When?"

"Easy, Sakura," Tenzou looked down at her with concern. "You're still a bit pale. What idiot let you come home looking this rough?"

"No no," Sakura waved him off, taking her weight back onto her own two legs. "Haven't slept very well, that's all. Besides, what are you doing in here?"

"I did knock," he replied honestly. "You didn't answer and I got worried, so I let myself in."

"Ah, I see--I guess," Sakura lead the way into the den from the room set up for the babies. "Just another person who wants to see the kids..."

"Not exactly," Tenzou corrected. "I came to tell you about my newest mission, since it directly involves the four of you."

Sakura tensed at the den door, hand not quite to the knob. "And?"

"I'm staying with you for the next year at least as extra protection. Tsunade-sama and I agreed you'd need it."

Sakura smiled over her shoulder sweetly, "That's kind, but if you'd have just asked me, I could have told you that I've already practically got a working schedule of chunnin and jounin coming by over the next few weeks to help out."

"But none of them are here now," Tenzou fixed her with a stern look, "and with the fact that you're not properly rested, your chakra is still way off, and you attacked me only to knock yourself off balance, we don't want you alone for any length of time. Especially here. No matter how competent your sporadic help may be, it's not a good idea to be without an extra pair of hands here at all times."

"And I don't want someone here that doesn't want to be," Sakura replied warily.

"I know. That's why Tsunade-sama never had to ask me."

The next thing he knew, slender arms had come up and pulled him tightly into a smaller, trembling frame. "Thank you!"

.

.

.

.

"This isn't working..." Tenzou grumbled, trying yet again to feed the fourteen-month-old boy a piece of cereal. "Why will the others take it, but not him?"

Sakura giggled, nearly getting caught in the cross fire of the other two's food fight. She knew exactly what was going on. Out of the three, Tenzou had ended up taking care of Obito the least being that the smallest boy needed the most attention from her than anything else in his earlier months.

"Come on, chibi," Tenzou mimicked opening his mouth wide and putting in a piece of cereal. "Just like that! Just like Itachi and Akaiko, right?"

"He is _not_ going to do it for you if you keep that up," Sakura snorted, finding that a little circle bit fell out of her nose in the process. _How and when did that get shoved up there?_ she thought.

"Then what will work?" Tenzou asked.

It was his first time seeing the three in over three months due to other missions keeping him busy and the lack of need for him here now that it was decided Kakashi could come help out as a sort of test. If he passed Sakura and these three, he would be allowed back onto active duty.

"Take them away from him," Sakura replied flippantly.

"The brat hates it," a man added from the living area while navigating a mess of toys as if they were poorly concealed mines.

In Tenzou's opinion, some of them might as well have been. Who knew that a mailbox would up and talk to you, let alone sing out something as atrocious as "Let's mail some---LETTERS!" He remembered his days as a mailman when laid off due to an arm injury. He had only thought he knew his way around town back then. Oh the hell of trying to find a street that the locals pronounced one way but wrote another... Gack!

"Ah, so he's acquired a new name for himself, then?" Tenzou asked the still cloaked man hovering between rooms.

"Stop dripping everywhere on my floors, Kakashi!" Sakura all but shrieked. "It's not like there isn't a coat rack right by the door over a perfectly waterproof mat!

"I didn't think I'd gotten that wet," Kakashi sighed, looking down at himself as he really did drip all over the wooden slats. "Sorry."

"Door! Now!" Sakura commanded with a sharp tone and a quick finger.

"Alright, alright," Kakashi wandered back through the mess of toys/mines as he was told.

With a shrug, Tenzou tried what they told him, and he hid all the cereal from Obito's sight. "Now what, little gaki?"

Sakura was finishing up her own bowl of cereal when Kakashi walked into the dining room completely this time, only to get nailed in the forehead with a piece of nut by a giggling Akaiko. Catching on to his sister's lead, Itachi soon copied the girl, his aim landing more in the region of Kakashi's left eye. Obito burst out laughing, completely forgetting his own hidden snack behind Tenzou's back.

"Gakira indeed," Kakashi muttered. "Especially that girl. She's going to be a hand-ful as bad as Naruto one day."

"She's just eager to do everything," Sakura playfully smacked the man on the shoulder.

Obito started crying out to Tenzou for the missing cereal he just remembered.

"Should I give it to him yet?" the brunet asked, unsure.

"He'll go for it this time," Kakashi nodded before blocking a third bit of food thrown at him, this time by the children's mother. "Sakura, I already knew where they got that ambition from. You don't need to get them started again."

_WHACK!_

"OW!"

_"Open the mailbox, look inside for a big surprise!"_

"Evil toys!"

_BumP._

_"The cow says 'moo.' Hey diddle diddle the cat and the fiddle the cow jumped over the moon!"_

"Sakura do you never take the batteries out of these things?"

Six bouts of laughter filled the diningroom as the newcomer decided to take the rout through the kitchen rather than brave more of the living area.

"Sheesh, not even I let Tsuyomi keep them on all the time!" Ino grumbled as she found herself a seat on the other side of Obito from Tenzou.

"That's because you're terrified of things that go bump in the night and aren't you," Sakura reminded of an old teasing point from their time as toddlers.

"How you can remember that, I'll never know..." Ino trailed off. "So, how are my three favorite little gakira doing this rainy afternoon?"

"Very destructively," Kakashi replied, pointing to the bits of food now splattering his mask and hitai-tate, another bit dangerously close to falling into his visible eye.

"Ah, practicing so soon!" Sakura sighed falsely, just to get on the man's nerves now that she knew it was more than relatively safe to do so again. "Except I'm sorry to say that their use of you as a target will be cut short today, Hatake-san."

"What's going on?" he asked as the other two pulled their attention from the children to focus on Ino as well.

"Naruto's pestering Tsunade like mad," Ino shrugged, "and this time one of them might just kill the other. They both want you as their tie-breaker."

"Seriously?" Tenzou looked at her like she'd grown three extra heads rather than the usual one.

"What has that idiot gone and done now?" Sakura moaned.

Ino smiled a bit, "Pulled the age card on her."

"And they need a tie breaker why?" Kakashi asked. "Isn't it obvious neither of them will do much since she is now scared shitless of him?"

"Language, Kakashi!" Sakura growled. "The children are starting to talk, remember?"

_They can barely say 'mommy.' I doubt they'll grasp 'shitless' anytime soon,_ Kakashi muttered internally. "Why, Ino?"

"Sakura can tell you that, can't you forehead?" Ino turned to the now beat-red woman at the other end of the table. "Go on. Tell him!"

Sakura's fumbling ended abruptly, "I can't! All three of them would kill me! You know that, Ino!"

_Bad choice of words, girl._ Tenzou slapped a hand to his forehead.

"Then I will tell him for you," Ino frowned, her fun ruined. "Tsunade is considering you to succeed her and has been for years. She still doesn't think Naruto's ready."

"And apparently would prefer a man not in controle of his own emotions?"

"Uh...if she wanted that, Naruto would have gotten it at sixteen..." corrected Ino. "The only reason you didn't get it yet was because of that damn Kabuto. It seems like Naruto just came to the conclusion it's time for her to pass on the title at about the same time Tsunade-sama was again thinking of handing it to you under the condition that Kabuto's new invasive poison is wiped out first. Naruto doesn't know about that, but he thinks you'll back him up because you've done it before or something like that."

Kakashi took a moment to think it over. "In that case, I'm never going near that office again. Not until someone else is picked or she gives in to Naruto. No. Way. Am. I. Getting. In. That. Outfit!"

The other three adults burst into laughter at the image. It was as silly as seeing him with baby bedtime books a few month prior. It just wasn't Kakashi even now. Unfortunately, Akaiko and Itachi thought the laughter was their signal to start throwing food at their elders again, and this time Obito caught on to the game. One moment, Tenzou was deftly handing up one piece and then another for the child whom had finally decided to eat. The next, the brunet was ducking down when several pieces were scooped from his hand at once and chucked at him all together.

All seven present missed the kunai flying at Sakura's head until she dodged it and grabbed the second one--aimed at Akaiko--and blocked the third--aimed at Itachi. The way the third glanced off her caught weapon, Ino was able to grab it before it hit the table. Both women picked a target in the living area and chucked the kunai, hitting freshly painted wall instead of their intended marks.

"Ino, Sakura, you take the kids--" Kakashi fell into leader mode, but was cut off by Sakura right off.

"No!" she grunted. "My kids, my house, my rules. Ino, Tenzou, get the kids safe from here. Kakashi-senpai, I'll take on the bastards with you."

"I'm staying, too," Tenzou put in, finishing off a wood clone to gather up Obito while Ino and her own clone did the same with each of the other two messy children.

"Fine, just make sure my kids aren't hit, got it?" Sakura asked, already knowing the answer. "And get someone else down here just in case!"

.

.

.

Three kunai left Suigetsu's hands, aiming in a way he knew the woman would be able to dodge and block. He wanted to get rid of the pests around the pinky, the ones keeping him from talking to her himself. They were always there, at least one of them, and the attack only cut their numbers by two thirds for a little while. Unfortunately, the third still remaining was one of the stronger two.

If Sasuke knew what he'd just done, or what he was planning on doing to Sakura when Kakashi was taken care of, Suigetsu knew he would kill him. Still, this had to be stopped. From what he knew of the Uchiha and the way those three children were already honing their aims before even talking, let alone being steady on their feet, the family was going to rip itself apart again within a couple generations at least.

No one needed another Itachi and Sasuke on their hands, villagers or missing-nin. They were too dangerous to everyone around them. At the very least, those children had to be cut in number and their mother not allowed to have any more.

Suigetsu knew he wasn't strong enough to face off with Sasuke, but perhaps he was quick enough to pin Sakura... just maybe.

No such luck.

The moment the kunai had left his hands, Sasuke had known despite their distance.

One kunai had flown back at him, the other going straight at the newly appeared Uchiha, both of them in the main living area of the large house. When they moved, it was Sasuke chasing Suigetsu, closely followed by Sakura, then Kakashi.

.

.

.

Sakura ran left once she got into the living area, and followed the two dark blurs out into the rain through the back door and into the large garden shared by three of the largest houses in the complex. The first blur of a man obviously wasn't familiar with the lay of the area, but the second seemed to navigate it as if it were second nature. That was her first clue.

Next was the shock of lightning that came not from the sky but from the second blur of a man out to the first, already fumbling one.

Sakura and Kakashi made it only after the first blur was tackled and busted up by the first, still shaking one.

Both Kakashi and Sakura knew it wasn't fear or cold that had the dark one before them shaking. It was anger and excitement. Such things had always made him anxious.

"Don't you ever try that again!" Sasuke shook an open palm at Suigetsu. "I'll do the same to you as I did to Karin. I swear it!"

"You have to be stopped," Suigetsu spat into Sasuke's face as if the rain weren't making them wet enough. "Your bloody clan can't be allowed to exist!"

Sasuke struck out with his palm, connecting it to Suigetsu's chin and breaking the smaller man's neck easily. "Now, if you try to move, I'm sure you'll just kill yourself. Fare as well as you can in prison here..."

.

.

.

She could see the change in his crouch; Sasuke was preparing to jump before she or Kakashi could catch him.

"Wait!" she yelled, knowing it wasn't loud enough to be heard well over the pounding rain.

He turned, just enough for her to see the angry redness of his right eye fade back into dark grey. Kakashi had already stopped the moment Sasuke had broken Suigetsu's neck, but Sakura hadn't noticed this. She just kept going, going until she hit what looked like a puddle, but certainly wasn't.

The rain had been enough to start causing minor flooding in low lying areas. This end of the large family garden was just one of those areas, and the small pond his great uncle had made from the stream that ran through the yard was now so flooded over that the whole area just looked like one large puddle. Even though Sakura had seen the area many times, she didn't know just how large the original pond had been before the man decided to scale it back. Now that area was a bit of a marsh anytime it rained like this. Sakura couldn't have known if this was her first time coming out here in the rain, and she sank in to her thighs.

Both men were running again, careful to stay on top of the water as they went. Without a word to one another, each took one of Sakura's hands and helped the other drag her out again. They both knew Sakura could have done it herself, but they both knew she was a mess right now. Her children were attacked, so there was little chance of her concentrating even the little bit it would take for her to get herself out of the marsh.

The moment she was out, though, Kakashi let her go, fully expecting her to hold tight to Sasuke. He was partially right. Yes, she did hold on to Sasuke more when he let her go, but she glanced at him as if to ask why he wouldn't hold her, too. Not only that, but Sasuke had already wrapped his arms around Sakura's waist before Kakashi's hand fully left her arm.

The soaked trio just took a little time to recover from the shock.

Sakura's eyes kept on Kakashi, wondering what would cause him to pull back now when he had run headlong after yet another attacker aiming for her. Kakashi stood back and watched the younger man holding Sakura from behind, how Sasuke rested his head on Sakura's shoulder and pressed his chest flat to her back, holding her tighter with each passing second. Kakashi knew that look on Sasuke's face. He'd seen it once on Kurenai while the woman thought she was alone with the memorial stone and one of Asuma's old shirts. Longing in its purest form.

But Sakura... her eyes were trained only on him, on Kakashi and how he seemed to be pulling away from her again.

"I'm sorry, Sakura, but I can't stay any longer," Sasuke pressed a kiss to Sakura's neck, though he still didn't move to let her go. "They still have orders to bring me in or kill me."

Sakura's eyes closed now, drinking in the little shower of kisses as if Kakashi wasn't right there. Her arms came up, one to his hands on her stomach, and the other into his hair as if to pull him closer.

This was the way Kakashi had expected her to react from the first touch. Wanting, loving, sad.

"Seems like they got another team down here quick," Kakashi broke the momentary silence, drawing both sets of eyes to him. "Hurry it up."

Sasuke looked back over his shoulder at Suigetsu. "Kakashi-sensei... Don't let anyone but Sakura touch him. He's still alive, I think."

"I know," the older man agreed. "Now go before I make you stay this time."

Sakura could feel Sasuke's smile on her ear before he kissed her cheek and disappeared, leaving her to be caught by Kakashi.


	7. Morning Surprises

And here's the real reason for the M rating. Realistic, uninterrupted, LEMON.

Hopefully you'll agree that this one's much better than the first one. Let's just say I was in the mood 98% of the time and wishing I could get some like that for myself.

Anyway, Suspicions, Lemon, and a stirring (haha...you'll get it it later) morning image for Lee.

* * *

Naruto would have been dancing on top of the Hokage's desk if he could have. Sasuke was proving his worth. Thankfully for most involved, Yashu and Tsuyomi had both grabbed hold of his arms and kept him in place. Tsunade looked a bit pissed with Kakashi, though only she seemed to know why. The target of her glares held a bright eyed baby girl in his lap, bouncing her to keep her smiling. That child's smile was only outstripped by two others in the room. Naruto, of course was one of them. The other was that of Obito, the boy who was repeatedly held upside down and brought back up again by Ino. Itachi looked back and forth from his mother's lap at his brother and sister, wondering what the fuss was all about before settling in to play with Sakura's shirt ties and seeing if they tasted any good.

Tsunade was glad for the distraction of Tenzou's return the moment he popped up through the floor.

"News?" she asked.

"He is stable, but resisting all medical attention now that he's woken up," Tenzou replied with a bit of a grumble. "He still thinks he can do something. Heh."

"The situation still stands, though," Tsunade's grumble almost matched that of the brunet man. "Even if it isn't by our own village as first feared, the children are still being targeted. We need to reinstate the 24 hour watch."

"But, Tsunade-sama, it was only the one man," Kakashi tried to reason things out to make life a litte easier on Sakura as far as privacy went. "I'm confident there wasn't anyone else with him."

"Who is to say that Sasuke himself didn't order the attack?" Tsunade quipped. "Aren't we talking about the same person here? The one that held both of you--Sakura, Naruto--off while Hinata was killed is the same one that tried to kill these three. Have you all forgotten that fact?"

"He also used Suigetsu to make sure you stayed where Sasuke wanted you," Tenzou added knowingly.

"But none of you saw his face like I did," Kakashi butted back in. "None of you saw how he held her, heard how he spoke to her, or watched as he nearly killed Suigetsu."

"It could just be an elaborate plan to get yet another person in position to strike at us from within," Yashu growled. "He's still our enemy. I don't care what you say."

The woman certainly wasn't prepared for all the glares aimed her way, especially the one from Tsunade being added to the mix. Hadn't she only just said what they were all thinking? Except for Sakura, of course. Seemed like she hadn't, because even Naruto was looking at her, clearly upset.

"Suigetsu wants Sasuke dead, too," Sakura broke the temporary silence. "It's not personal, not exactly. He just doesn't want the Uchiha clan brought back, I think."

"It's not like they ever did anything to him, though!" Ino spoke up, trying not to let Obito eat at her hair. "What would have set him off like that against a family rather than one person?"

"Sakura," Tsunade cut off any replies to Ino, needing a different kind of information first, "what was going on, exactly, just before the attack?"

"That," she pointed to the tiny bits of cereal sticking to Kakashi's face and in Tenzou's hair. "Akaiko and Itachi were using Kakashi-sensei as target practice, and Obito caught on a bit later and started throwing it at Tenzou-san."

"Why?"

"Hm?" Sakura asked, confused.

"Why were they throwing the food in the first place?"

Sakura looked at the elderly woman as if there was something not quite right with her head. "They're _children_, Tsunade-sama... It was just funny to them to see if he would react differently than Tenzou and I did."

"Maybe so, but at what part of him did most of the food fly in the direction of?"

Kakashi shared a look with Sakura, understanding automatically. "My eye."

"Exactly," Tsunade replied. "Even now they can tell there's something different about your eye, and they're showing interest in a rather violent manner. Am I right, or do children normally strike out at things they like at this age?"

"No, that takes a while longer," Sakura sighed, glancing over at Tsuyomi for a moment. The boy was in that stage now himself, striking out at girls and challenging other boys his age to stupid contests of strength. "These three don't normally do that kind of thing."

"Uh, I know this sounds kinda lame and all, but," Naruto scratched the top of his head, "could it just be the same reason we all targeted you, sensei? You just look different from all of us because of your mask and all, not because of your actual face or anything like that."

As if to prove Naruto's point, Akaiko reached out and grasped the edge of Kakashi's mask, pulling it out from his nose and cheek a bit before he could stop her and put it back in place.

"The kids are innocent, I think we have just established," Kakashi swatted Akaiko's hand away a second time, frustrating the child who then quickly smacked his hitai-tate. "Ow! Hey, I'm trying to defend you here! Is that any way to repay me?"

The long slew of words confused the child, so instead she turned back around and started trying to get off his lap with limited success. Eventually he just held her up with one hand, palm flat open to the sky with her belly pressed to it, body squirming as she trie to find a way down without tumbling painfully. Eventually she gave up again as all the adults watched her futile struggle.

"Hey, where'd you learn that one?" Sakura asked, truly shocked that he'd done such a thing without a second thought.

"Pakkun," Kakashi replied honestly.

"Everyone back on topic, please!" Tsunade rapped her knuckles on the desk between them. "I can't believe you're all taking it so lightly!"

"Shisho, believe me, I don't take this lightly," Sakura returned her attention to the matter on hand. "I do know, though, that as long as friends are near, we don't have to worry that much. I trust Sasuke."

"Which is exactly what he wants us all to do. For what, though?"

Sakura jumped to the answer quicker than the others, "Naruto, Sensei, remember the day we first met up as a team?"

"I had you all introduce yourselves, likes, dislikes, ambitions and such... general stuff to get a tack on each of you. So?" Kakashi asked, bored.

"What were Sasuke's ambitions?" she pointed out, looking straight at Naruto this time.

"Kill Itachi, of course," Naruto answered honestly.

"And the other one, Kakashi?" she whirled on the older man.

"Revive his clan," he chuckled, still holding Akaiko above his head. "He hates sweets, wants to revive his clan, but first kill a certain man...his brother. Go figure."

"And because of that, you're going to put your faith in him, say that he isn't the one organizing the killing of his friends and their children?" Tsunade pressed.

Sakura laughed a little. "Of course. If he wanted his own kids dead, he could have done it in the hospital the day they were born."

"That wasn't Sai, was it?"

Ino and Sakura both hid smirks.

"You're kidding me! No, it's not possible!"

"It is," Ino replied, thoroughly ruining Tsunade's mood for the week.

.

.

.

The chill of November took hold of Konoha, snow mixing in with the rain more often than not. Streets were icy in the nights and early mornings, then slushy the rest of the day until evening came and it was all just cold mud before night fell again and turned everything back into ice. Power got knocked out to sections now and again, including random areas of the clan complexes. After the first time one hit their area, Sakura bought warmer blankets and huddled all three of her children together in the same bed for them to share warmth.

Looking back on her decision now, Sakura gave herself a pat on the back. It was an easy way of killing two birds with one stone. First off, the three of them would be more comfortable. Secondly, their bonds could be reaffirmed through physical contact. She didn't really understand it herself, but she'd been taught that multiples cared for one another even when in the womb when circumstances allowed for more than one to survive. If anything, all three slept better and longer, meaning that Sakura could get an even better rest herself.

Instead of just resorting to it as a back up for warmth, Sakura took to putting the three on the larger futon all together as a nightly thing when she realised just how much better she herself felt. Yet, that left her with a dilema. Where was she going to sleep now that they had her futon instead of their cribs?

Sakura smacked herself on the head for not thinking of it sooner. Tenzou's room had a futon he didn't use. He had brought his own from home while staying here, keeping the firmer futon in the corner instead. All it would need were a few punches to the right areas, and it would be evened out again with ease.

Taking her futon into the triplets' room for them to use and be more comfortable since it smelled more like her than some stranger, Sakura brought the larger, slightly lumpy futon into her room and beat it out before putting fresh sheets on it and calling it a night.

Lee was staying for this night, the third of his shift in keeping her company. Instead of the room beside hers that everyone else tended to take, Lee always preferred to take up in the den on the lounge chair where he could hear everything going on in the babies' room with just a bit of concentration. Instead of arguing, she simply offered him more blankets and a couple more pillows before hugging him good night and going back to her own room across the hall.

The dark red comforter was chilly to the touch on top, but she knew that under that, the royal purple blanket, and flannel blue sheets, a heavenly warmth could be found. Tossing her nightgown off, she shimmied out of her boxers and sports bra as well before climbing into bed. Thoughts of the day ran through her mind. Her little tots toting around plushies through the market, being herded by she and Lee the whole way while they bought groceries and tried to get the kids to say more words than "MINE!" every time one of the others decided they wanted to trade toys for a moment.

Then there was that snake on the way home.

All three had gathered around the simple garden snake under the flower box of an elderly lady's window sil. Each kept their distance as Sakura carefully picked it up and let it wind around her wrist, arm, and hand, gently keeping it in her grasp until it was out of danger from stomping feet and letting it go into a stand of trees. Akaiko had wanted to chase after it up the tree, but her brothers had both decided the best way to keep her in place and grabbed hold of her doll tightly. When forced to chose between the snake and the samurai doll, Akaiko had been torn in her decision, eventually deciding that the doll was less likely to get her in trouble.

Sakura was proud of her sons and appreciated her daughter's curiosity. With a smile on her face, she started to drift off into her dreams.

Some minutes later, a chilly breeze brought her back to wakefulness. She knew she hadn't left the window open. That was just asking to get sick. Gripping the knife beneath her pillow, Sakura chanced a look up at the open window, only to find it closed now, a figure silhouetted by moonlight standing there looking over her carefully.

"There used to be locks on this window," a gentle, deeper voice mused from the figure.

"Sasuke..." Sakura sighed, letting go of the knife and rolling onto her stomach happily. "You scared me."

"Who's on guard tonight that can't figure out when their traps have been set off?" he asked, concerned.

"He doesn't set chakra traps like the others like to do," Sakura replied, patting the empty area beside her. "Come on. Get warm."

"I think I will," Sasuke pushed off of the window sill and took off his boots, followed by soggy socks, old scarf, and newer cloak. "So, I take it Lee is the one here?"

Sakura nodded.

"Chose my timing well... that man sleeps like a log."

Sakura giggled at his bluntness, however true his words were. If they played their cards right, Lee would not know a thing had happened all night. Sasuke saw the pile of clothes Sakura had left on the floor and decided he might do better at warming up if he, too, stripped down a bit more. He watched her carefully as he took off his shirts, then pants, leaving him only in a pair of gray cotton boxers. He hadn't expected the frown she gave him this time.

"What?" he asked, confused by her look.

"Your side..." Sakura pointed to his right side where a long scar ran from armpit to hip. "What happened?"

Sasuke really didn't want to answer that question. "It healed."

"I can see that, baka!" Sakura admonished, sitting up and pulling him down to get a better look at it in the moonlight. "I meant how did you get it? Were you being mister hero again or something?"

"Not hardly," he replied, shivering at her light touch. Here he had thought she was at least in a pair of underwear and a low cut tank top only to find she was completely nude and not even bothering to cover herself. Her thighs were brushing his, one actually finding it's way into his lap as she bent oddly to inspect the old wound more closely. The feel of her silky thigh against his, the light touch of her hand over his chest, her breath on his tender side, and the sound of her soft voice were doing a number on him. If her voice changed tone much more, if her fingers strayed too much more, if her thigh kept sliding like that with her every move, he was going to get a visible hard-on despite the fact he hadn't come here for a sexual encounter.

Sakura sealed the deal with a light kiss to the scared area over his ribs where the damage had been the worst.

His silence the whole time while she asked question after question and checked the scar over, re-opening then re-healing tiny parts of it with her chakra finally caught her attention. Looking up, she barely had time to recognise that his eyes were locked on to hers before his lips crashed into hers.

"Stop" _kiss_ "touching" _kiss kiss_ "me" _deeper kiss_ "like" _lick kiss_ "that." Sasuke spoke, bringing his hand up to her cheek. "You'll make a man lose controle so easily."

"Payback for not being here to defend yourself against my shisho," Sakura grinned, finding herself a little worked up, too, now that her medic mode had worn off.

She was going to be the death of him... right here, right now. He just knew it.

"Why, Sasuke, you're blushing!" Sakura teased, trailing her fingers over his pinked chest and throat. He was glad she wouldn't actually harm him, because right now, he couldn't stop her for anything.

He hadn't touched another woman the way he'd touched sakura that first time. He hadn't even really been able to masturbate without her on the brain since then, either. Damn her for playing the part of one of his earlier fantasies so easily. Here she was, naked, playing doctor, and looking at him like she was about to eat him alive, her fingers finding one bit of a blush and making it grow even more. Here she was whispering to him in a huskier voice than she normally used, and coming very close to having her knee against his hardening groin, lips so near his own, swollen from kissing.

Sasuke reached out and pushed a lock of pink away from her eyes, "Is this a dream?"

"I hope not," Sakura turned her face into his palm to kiss his thumb, "because it's been far too long since we were last alone like this."

"I agree," he hooked his fingers behind her neck and pulled her into a much more demanding set of kisses, nips, and moans as she slowly decided to just crawl on into his lap, legs on either side of his waist so that she could press her torso to his more fully. She gave him no respite, going straight for his throat with teeth, tongue, and lips, eventually resting on the hollow just above his collar bone. Her fingers kept running random paths over his sides, back, chest, and stomach.

He groaned and pressed into her more when her fingernails trailed straight down between his pecks, stopping at his solar plexus before she pushed him down onto the futon, curling her legs back around so that she was kneeling with him between her thighs. He hadn't wanted to lay back. He wanted to lay her back. Still, she kept him down with the one hand, the other hooking into his boxers while she bit at her lip a little.

Sasuke had trouble breathing as she made up her mind and moved to the side and stripped him of the last vestige of clothing on his body. Sakura took just a short glance back at his face before taking hold of his length in her hand, bringing it all the way to full hardness in a couple strokes. The feeling of longing tugged with each stroke of her fingers, rendering him almost helpless under her ministrations.

"mmh....Sakura," he breathed her name, needing to say it. "...Sakura..."

Her smile filled more than the pit of his stomach with extra warmth. It brought one of his own out as he reached out to take her hand away from his length. She didn't allow it, however, instead she bent down and licked at the tip, sending shudders through his whole body. He didn't know if she had ever done this before, but he guessed it was as good a start as any, having never received anything like this himself.

"Am I doing this right?" her soft voice, tentative and slightly shaky, floated up to his ears.

"I don't know," Sasuke replied honestly, "but it feels so nice..."

"Okay," Sakura took a breath to steady herself before returning to run her tongue around the rim of his head before moving her lips to bring him inter her mouth, just the head though. Just enough to get an idea of what it might be to take even more of him in, and the thought nearly made her gag. She let him back out of her mouth in a hurry, unable to conceive how anyone could do more than the head, let alone deep throat. "Sorry... I don't think I can do more than that..."

"That's just fine," he sat up again, pulling her by the shoulder into a hug, "it's not like I asked you to do it or anything. Don't worry about it."

"You sure?" she asked, not certain what she had done wasn't an affront to him.

"Yes, Sakura-koi," Sasuke planted a kiss at the corner of her mouth.

She turned her head, reading his movements enough to know right when to move and catch his lips with her own again. His hand snaked up into her hair, massaging her scalp as he pressed his lips into hers more fully. Sakura opened her mouth to him, wanting more and finding her wish fulfilled when his tongue met hers part way between them, stroking and toying.

Sakura allowed him to lay her back down, one hand in her hair and the other on one of her nipples, pinching, rolling, and pulling at the pink bud. His fingers trailed down the length of her body from there, pausing now and then to just run circles and other random patterns at an interesting spot. When his fingers reached the apex of their thighs, she shuddered and let out a light moan of "please, Sasuke."

He barely had to put any pressure on her thighs to part them enough for his hand to fit and massage her outer lips, pressing his middle finger along her slit a bit firmer than the others. At Sakura's hum of approval, he moved lower, finding her dampness and spreading it over the rest of her slit carefully before pushing in a finger to find a little bundle of nerves towards the front end. The last time he had touched her there, she had squirmed and shuddered relentlessly, begged him to continue even.

It was there, small, but there and he pressed his fingernail to it. Sakura arched up into his touch with a long, low moan escaping her lips. That sound was candy to his ears, building the flame inside of him even more. The more he stroked her thighs, and the more he played with that secret bundle of nerves, the wetter she got and the more she moaned his name. He would have been content to sit there by her side like that, slowly driving her insane, for the rest of his life. Alas, though, Sakura wanted to be more than content.

"I...need you...Sasuke," Sakura gripped his thigh tightly, surely leaving nail marks despite how short she kept them.

She brought his head back down to hers, pulling so that he lay out next to her and she could throw a leg over his hips. The tip of his penis rubbed lightly over her opening; the places where their skin met felt like they were on fire, but her opening and his head were a molten wave upon each other's bodies, especially when they touched. He grew just that little bit more, the need to drive into her body causing his cock to twitch at the prospects of being buried deep within her slick, burning body eating him up inside, and yet their position didn't allow for any penetration... It was such a torture to be so close, yet held at bay, and now he understood how she had felt while he used only her one little button at the end of her slit to keep her high and writhing at his touch. It was an exquisit torture.

Satisfied he had endured as much as she had, Sakura flipped him onto his back, impaling herself over his length at the same moment his back hit the futon.

Sasuke was in sweet bliss the moment she sank over him, moaning her triumph as he splayed his hands over her thighs, arching a little to get that tiny bit deeper.

Sakura watched Sasuke's mouth go slack, his eyes squeeze shut. She listened to the catch in his breath, felt the startled grip on her legs as the rest of his body reacted accordingly by pressing upwards into hers.

Though he had grown slightly more masculine in appearance with time, all she saw was the boy inside. She saw that hungry, curious boy as he discovered true pleasure for the second time in his life and found that he liked it even more than the first time around. Sakura was enthralled at how that boy merged with the man beneath her as they both sought more movement, weakly thrusting up and falling down again a couple times before she gave in and eased herself up and down along his shaft, taking him in, pulling off again, and taking him in again. Gently, slowly, she stopped with just his tip inside--and swirled her hips as she sank back down again.

"Haagh!" Sasuke sat up, changing their angle dramatically as he crashed his lips back into hers. For a moment, she thought she had hurt him, until the hunger of his kiss told her the opposite had happened and he was simply trying to keep from waking the house's other occupants.

Sakura was trapped now. Behind her, Sasuke's knees supported her back. Before her was the rest of the man minus one arm that kept him upright and clinging to her. Below her... his hips, and the place were his body was currently connected to hers that was slowly pushing in and out of her with every little buck those hips made involuntarily. Deciding to take the moment's opportunity to play, she ran her fingernails over his sides and chest again, then narrowed her range to his pecks and occasionally scraping a nail across his taut nipples. Each pass over a nipple caused him to hiss and moan into her mouth, adding another jerk of the hips.

"Mmm... come on, Sasuke," she goaded. "I know you're strong enough to take me like this."

He knew what she meant without thinking. Already mostly inside of her, all he had to do was lift his hips from the floor and his length slid the rest of the way back in. Even from above, Sakura was willing to hand over control. Sakura threw her head back and held on to his knees as he moved inside of her, dropped back to the floor again, and shoved back inside once more.

Body humming with pleasure, Sakura didn't even notice the fact that she was laid down, angle changing again so that he could move more easily against her. She simply matched him thrust for thrust, wanting more, giving more, and letting go of all thought, focused solely on the heat between her legs and how to let it burn through its full potential as brightly as possible.

Sasuke barely had the concentration to keep things paced out. It was that or lose himself to the need to pound into her for only his pleasure. He didn't have to keep it up long, however, because Sakura was moving faster, with a failing tempo... She didn't greet him with each thrust now. She was trying to go faster, her legs hooked over his back rode higher even as they shook.

He had enough then. Taking her legs from up around his shoulder blades, Sasuke instead put them on his shoulders and muttered a short "hold on" before slamming in and out to both their pleasure.

Sakura's voice rose several octaves, whining with each thrust of his cock into her body. Her walls started to close around him, fluttered momentarily, and then clamped down hard as her orgasm hit, waves of fluid coating their joining over and over again as he continued to move within her.

He felt every moment like a devine torture, but her tightness loosened up a bit before the clenching in his balls could turn into his own release. Frustrated for him, Sakura continued to match his pace, reaching between her own legs to tease her clitoris and bring about another of her own orgasms, consciously forcing it sooner than it would have come with just his current movements.

It was nearly too late when Sasuke realised what she was doing for him. He looked on her with hazy eyes, an unspoken world passing between the two in that second before his breath hitched and stayed away, his body stilling inside of hers as his seed shot deep into her body, her own orgasm egged on and turned real by the sensation.

.

.

.

When Sakura awoke later, it was to see the sun's first light tinting the walls light sherbert. The blankets were under her back, a strange place for them considering she was still warm. She almost felt like she did when pregnant, a weight on her middle that was comforting and loved. Except this weight wasn't within her own skin, and it was up a bit higher, down a bit lower, and all around her, limiting her breathing some as well.

The moment of panic subsided when she remembered the night before, looked down at the face on her chest, and fought back a giggle.

Here was the Uchiha...Uchiha Sasuke....knocked out from exertion other than training or fighting... drooling on her chest like a baby with a clogged up nose, snoring lightly and cuddling up to her like she was a body pillow. Oh if only she had a camera. He was ass naked and in one hell of a compromising situation with a woman he'd once shifted to the side like all the others.

Instead of dwelling on those thoughts, she chose to run her fingers through his hair, the other hand hugging him lightly, only to find that his back was freezing cold from sleeping without any covers the whole night through.

"Morning, Sakura," he mumbled into her breast, nuzzling her a bit to wipe the saliva off his own face and more onto her body as if he didn't even realise she was currently his human pillow. "It sure is cold in here."

"That's 'cause the blankets are all below me, and you're on top," she reminded.

"Oh."

Was that really his reply?

"Damn."

That sounded more like it. Except--

"I'm still inside you," he continued.

At least that explained the slightly more sore sensation between her legs than the last time he'd taken her over the edge. "Does it hurt?"

"Some," he nodded. "I'm afraid to move, though."

"But you need to get warmed up better," Sakura reminded. "It's dawn, by the way."

"Damn. Can't that sun hold off a few more hours?"

"Unfortunately not, and neither will Lee."

"Lee?" he grunted, looking back up at her face as if he didn't quite know what she was talking about.

"He's staying this week to help out..."

"Damn it."

"Yeah."

Sasuke gathered his nerves a bit and propped up on his elbows to plant a proper morning kiss on the woman beneath him, at the same time pulling himself out of her warmth and stifling a hiss as his dry skin left her dried channel. Well, it was dry except for all around his tip which had been holding in a small wave of liquid that now came pouring out behind him. Sakura moaned a bit into their kiss as she felt his seed exiting her body onto the top of the fresh comforter. Only used one night, it would already need washing thanks to Sasuke's visit.

_Knock Knock Knock!_

"Sakura-san, are you awake?" Lee's muted voice came through the door. "I thought I heard someone talking."

"I'm awake, Lee-san," Sakura called back, her hand being squeezed tightly by Sasuke. "Just thinking out loud. I'll be--"

And the door opened.

"Wanna see mommy," Akaiko babbled as she tried to get in to Sakura's bedroom.

"Careful, chibi," Lee reached down to try and stop the girl, but Akaiko had stopped herself, looking at her mother with the strange, dark haired man beside her.

"Who you?"

Lee looked up at the frozen pair and nearly passed out on the spot. Sakura, naked. Sasuke, right next to her and in no better state than the woman of the house. Shit!

"Get." Sakura forced herself to speak. "Out."

All eyes turned to her, not sure whom she was speaking to, all clearly just knowing it was them and not the other two faces that normally weren't seen in this room at such an hour.

"Mommy, why does he have what ototo has?" Akaiko pointed right between her father's legs, full of curiosity. "Chin...poko... Yeah?"

Sakura found her voice the moment Sasuke scrambled to hide his nakedness with the edge of the comforter. "Lee, get her out of here, please. I will be out in a moment."

The thought of running was wiped clean out of Sasuke's brain the moment he remembered that the first person to beat him in a fight outside of his family was the very same man standing dumbfounded in the hall way and forgetting how to hold back a two-year-old child. The moment the other man came back to his senses, Sasuke wouldn't have a chance at escaping, unless he went now, with no clothes and only a blanket for modesty's sake. However, the fact that the red headed girl was now practically in his lap meant he couldn't just jump up and run. The child would get hurt if he moved that swiftly with her that close to him.

"You like Obito and Itachi," Akaiko spoke matter-of-factly. "Dark. Boy. What name?"


	8. Cat Won't Kill You

"Please go with Lee-san, Akaiko," Sakura pulled her daughter away from Sasuke and turned her around. "He might make breakfast early today. Right, Lee-san?"

Lee's mouth was opening and closing over and over, struggling for one complete thought. "Uh... um...Sakura...Sasu...ke...Uh..."

"Go get your brothers and go into the diningroom," Sakura again appealed to her daughter. "Us grown-ups have a bit to talk about, but we'll be out in a moment or two. Alright?"

As soon as the now sulking girl was out of the room, all hell broke loose, just as Sakura expected.

Sasuke threw aside the bit of blanket and struggled into his clothes, all the while avoiding each and every hit Lee was aiming his way--conveniently hindered by the fact that Sakura was throwing herself in Lee's way the whole time. With Sakura getting in the way, Lee had to redirect his blows or hit the person he was bound and determined to protect. With Lee aiming at his head every couple of seconds, Sasuke couldn't get dressed as fast as usual and ended up tripping Sakura at least twice with his pants or a shoe. If he gave up on clothes and just fought back, things might have been settled quicker, but it might have also just brought the house down...along with him if Lee had advanced the way he and everyone else had.

It certainly didn't take long for all three kids to return to the room, hearing the ruckus within and getting curious. Once that happened, Sasuke was done for, even with Sakura's ample help in tackling Lee to the floor. He now had to deal with a boy sitting firmly on each foot and clinging to his legs and a girl on his shoulders pulling at his hair. All three of them were yelling at him and saying that they would beat him up if he didn't leave their mother alone... Damn kids must have already gotten too much influence from Naruto.

"That's right, chibi!" Lee yelled encouragement at the triplets. "Keep him in place!"

"Don't hurt each other!" Sakura called after that, rearing back and knocking Lee out once and for all this time. Getting up, she quickly dusted herself off and made to pull Akaiko off Sasuke's head. "And let the man go, will you? He's in a hurry!"

"Mommy, you're naked!" Obito screeched, hiding both his eyes and his brother's at the same time.

This gave Sasuke what seconds he needed to push the boys off, finish getting his shirt on, find his shoes, kiss Sakura on the cheek, and fly out the window as fast as his legs could push him. Not to mention the fact that the boy's yelling was now bringing Lee back to consciousness.

.

.

.

Tsunade already had a bit of a head ache when Lee and Sakura shoved one another into her office, followed by a team of ANBU, and then Iruka with three kids around him. What this entailed, she could guess pretty quickly by the looks Lee and Sakura threw at one another over and over again.

"Sasuke decide to come home for a while?" she asked knowingly.

"And she stopped me from capturing him!"

"Everyone but Lee, get out," Tsunade ordered. "That means you, too, Sakura. All of you wait to be called in again."

Sakura balked, "But shisho--!"

"Out!"

Five adults and three children sulked as she evicted them, but all eight of them felt better than the one person left behind. He had no idea what was about to happen, whether it be good or bad. Neither did the others, to be fair, except they were all glad it wasn't them just in case it was the latter.

"Tell me what you found the moment you saw Uchiha Sasuke?" Tsunade asked somewhat softly. "What was the situation that lead you to him?"

"I...Akaiko woke up early and came to wake me up because she couldn't get into Sakura's room," replied Lee, straight to the point even though he didn't know where the older woman was going with this. "I told her I'd make breakfast for her, but at the same time, I heard voices coming from the other room. It definitely wasn't the boys. So I knocked and asked Sakura if she was awake."

"Continue."

"Akaiko managed to get the door open anyway. She wanted to see Sakura. I...uh...anyway... when I saw him there, he was trying to cover up because Akaiko had come over to him and started asking questions. He was completely naked! It had to be my best chance to capture him, since he wouldn't be caught dead streaking. So, when Sakura got Akaiko to go out, I attacked, but Sakura got in the way. Next thing I know is that Sasuke is tangled up in clothes and kids, but Sakura is still shielding him!"

Tsunade smiled at the thought of a man tangled up in his own clothing and children, trying to flee the scene. It would have been hilarious if it weren't so serious.

"Lee, I think it's time you were let in on an unspoken agreement between myself, Sakura, and the council," she leaned back in the chair.

"Hokage-sama?" questioned Lee, not understanding.

"It's becoming a well known fact that Uchiha Sasuke is attacking all of his former associates as well as anyone connected to Akatsuki with the exception of a select few that never did any direct harm to Konoha. It's also public knowledge that the council was very worried of the Sharingan falling into other hands, especially since Sasuke banished himself from our ranks. Now that he's turned coats again, they're willing to lessen his sentence as long as he keeps the Sharingan within our own people. He's already gotten a start with Akaiko, Obito, and Itachi, but it's not enough for them.

"There is no proof that any of those three will actually inherit and activate their father's kekke genkai, so the council wants more of them to help increase the odds of restoring the Uchiha clan for the use of the Sharingan in Konoha's favor. Boarder guards have been letting him through on purpose so that he can visit Sakura, a good choice as far as we're all concerned. As long as he doesn't go after any others or come for anything but to spend time with her and their children, he is allowed to move back and forth in moderate secrecy.

"You weren't supposed to meet him this morning, and I certainly hope that I don't have to tell any more people than those three ANBU, Umino-san, and those kids to keep their mouths shut because of what you walked in on. The truth is, if Sasuke is caught and officially brought in, he will be tried immediately for all crimes. However, if he continues to help clean up and safeguard Konoha he will be allowed to return on an indeterminate length of probation the moment any one of his children activates their kekke genkai and can prove it to the council and myself."

"Then..." Lee looked around, double checking to see that he really was looking at the Godaime instead of his mind playing tricks on him. "You're just going to let him--?"

"Yes, Lee," she nodded. "I also expect you to keep your mouth shut about this incident and never--_ever_ attack that man again unless he attacks you or one of your comrades first. Understood?"

Lee wanted to tell her no, that he didn't understand. He didn't understand why he had to sit back at watch Sakura give herself up to an outcast. He didn't understand why he had to watch those kids grow up without a proper father figure simply because Sakura wouldn't move on if she was continually having Sasuke in her bed and his children inside her body. He didn't understand why they couldn't just treat the missing Uchiha like any other criminal.

Instead, he shut his mouth and nodded in affirmation once.

"Good," Tsunade waved him off. "Send in the ANBU and Umino-san next, please."

.

.

ああああああああああああああああああ

.

.

Sasuke limped, favoring his left leg despite the additional pain in his right one, slowly making his way towards the boarder of Konoha, to the very same spot the guards always overlooked the moment he showed up. He knew it was on purpose that they looked the other way, but this time he hoped they would look his way, just this once acknowledging his presence rather than ignoring it. His hopes were dashed momentarily, though, when the cat masked ANBU in charge of this section looked right over his shoulder into the trees beyond.

That is until the smell of blood hit the ANBU's nose.

"What happened?" the Cat asked, catching Sasuke before he hit the ground and pulling him over into an area where the others wouldn't see the interaction. "You're not supposed to come here if you're hurt. You know the ones inside are out for your blood!"

"Zetsu..." Sasuke replied, forcing the answer despite a rib poking his lungs. "Nearly got me... Get... Sakura... Fast!"

"I'll do one better and get the Hokage, too," Cat replied. "She needs to hear this first hand."

"Thanks..."

Sasuke found it a bit odd that the ANBU man didn't actually go himself, send another, or create a clone to do the job. It seemed he had someone on radio instead...someone who was already staying near Sakura.

"Wake her up and have her send a clone with you to get Hokage-sama. Meet me here as fast as possible," Cat spoke bluntly into the radio, not even bothering to say whom he was so that the other person could know.

All was answered, however, when Sakura, Tsunade, and an identical cat masked ANBU man landed near-by.

"He's wounded in both legs and the chest," Cat announced as his doppelgänger went back the way he had come.

"What happened?" both women demanded as one. Sakura moved to examine his chest while Tsunade worked on the worse looking of the two legs.

"Went after a runt only to get beat back by Zetsu," Sasuke answered, his chest already feeling so much better now that Sakura had moved the bone back into place through chakra. "I swear the man wanted to eat me alive!"

"Did you lead him here?" Tsunade paused in her treatment, worried.

"Are you kidding?" Sasuke asked. "He was out cold when I left him, except...It wasn't me that did him in."

"Who else was there?"

"At first, I couldn't tell what they looked like, but then I saw that it was one of the Sand-nin. It was that Kankurou, and his sister wasn't far behind."

Sakura shared a look with Tsunade and the Cat at the same moment. Sand-nin weren't supposed to be in the area, not those two at least.

"It's her fault my ribs were broken," Sasuke continued. "They were after me, but I guess seeing me come this way made them back off to preserve the treaty."

"Sasuke..." Sakura spoke up, "Kankurou has been dead for over a year now, and Temari is staying at home right now because she's pregnant."

Sasuke looked up at her, not believing it, "I saw what I said I saw. I never said it didn't look fishy."

Cat seemed to repress a snort.

"What do you find so funny?" Tsunade demanded instead of letting it go.

"It would be fishy if it were Kisame again," Cat answered, barely hiding an extra chuckle.

"Oh, go back to looking the other way!" Tsunade waved him off, irritated. "You can joke tomorrow when your sister gets home."

"She's coming home?" Cat was surprised, and it sounded like it was the good kind of surprised.

"We'll talk about that later, now just go!"

Both Sakura and Sasuke brushed off what the other two said. It didn't sound all that important at the moment. As a matter of fact, it started to turn into an almost mother-son type argument.

Sakura returned her attentions to other minor wounds Sasuke had sustained. "Do you have any other ideas as to who they could have been?"

He shook his head, "No. And it wasn't a genjutsu. That's for sure."

He could see the frustration building up in her eyes, the tension in her shoulders, the way she had to concentrate on a small cut in his shoulder. She didn't ask any more questions, and didn't offer any more knowledge. Three weeks had gone by since they last spoke, but she didn't say anything...

"Sakura, what's wrong?" he asked, reaching out to hold her hand where it still sat on his knee. "What happened here?"

"It's nothing," she shook her head and returned to checking him over. "Nothing happened."

"And I'm guessing that because it's nothing, it's a problem?" he smiled knowingly.

"I--I'll tell you some other time when we don't have an audience."

Getting that time alone took another hour, however, as Tsunade went through his story again, evicted curious guards, and continued to ask more and more questions.

"Well, we can't just set you loose right now," Tsunade sighed. "Your wounds will re-open if you aren't very careful, but morning is coming fast..."

"I can promise he won't be attacked at home this time," Sakura added. "At least not by anyone that can do any real harm."

"Cat, get back over here!" Tsunade called the ANBU back. "Can you promise me to keep Sasuke safe and wherever Sakura tells him to be until she says he's healed enough to go again?"

"I can," he nodded.

.

.

.

Sasuke let Sakura tuck him in to bed like a child, as much as he knew he could do it himself...even wished she'd let him do it himself. He didn't complain, though. It meant so much to her to have him there again...didn't it? He wondered a bit, seeing the look in her eyes, the determined set of her mouth. Did she want him there anymore?

"What?" Sakura asked, stopped from leaving by his hand taking hers.

"Talk to me, Sakura," he spoke softly. "You're not relaxing at all now that you're home. Something other than what I saw is bothering you."

"Sasuke, I have children to feed, a friend to call and cancel a date with, an ANBU to evict so that his sister doesn't see you here--"

"He already said he's just going to send a clone to meet her," he reminded.

"That still leaves me with four kids, and a friend to cancel on," she retorted. "And besides, you just had to show up on Tsuyomi's induction day. Yashu has a surgery to do that she couldn't get out of, and Naruto is doing the induction this year, so he can't be there as Tsuyomi's parent, so now I have to go even though you're here. And at the same time, I have to keep Itachi, Akaiko, and Obito in line and looking proud of their brother--"

"I want to go, too then," he sat back up, against Sakura's orders of when they first got into the bedroom. "I can change to look like some random person and help you with them."

"And what? You expect everyone to just dismiss the disguised man by my side as nothing more than a friend embarrassed of a pimple or something? Someone will notice and ask questions. You'll stay here with Tenzou." Sakura stood and started for the door.

"The man will kill me!" Sasuke nearly yelled and woke the whole house.

"No he will not!" she replied in a lower tone. "If you haven't noticed, _he_ is the one making sure you get in here all the time! _He_ is the one that's been watching your back! Even after the fact that you've tried to kill him, he's still going to look out for you!"

"Kaa-san..." a blond six-year-old peeked through the door, rubbing his eyes. "Who are you yelling at so early?"

"Go back to bed, baby," Sakura turned him around quickly before he could see Sasuke. "You've still got another two hours before breakfast. You'll need all your sleep and rest. Today's a big day for you and your Tou-san!"

"Why can't my other Kaa-san come, too?" the child moaned.

"Because Neji-oji-san got hurt, remember?" Sakura reminded him. "She has to make sure he gets through surgery today."

"But that means he won't be there for Kyomaru-kun like you'll be there for me!"

"But Tenten-oba-san will, and your Sofu will be there for you both, too, and Hanabi-oba-san."

"I don't like them."

"I know, but they care about you. Now, back to bed. I'll try not to be so loud in here."

Sasuke listened to the gentle, patient way Sakura spoke to the boy--so very unlike the way she had treated the child's father at that age. Who Kyomaru was, he had no idea, but it sounded like he must have been related to that Tenten person he barely remembered from school. Must have been her son. After the several minutes of answering question after question from Tsuyomi, Sakura was finally able to return to the room.

However, instead of arguing more with him, Sakura stretched out on top of the blankets next to Sasuke and closed her eyes, not having to try hard to get back to sleep.

Sasuke didn't remember getting to sleep. He didn't remember Sakura leaving, or the noise of four sets of small feet running up and down the hall. He didn't hear Sakura and another man telling them all to hush and let "their guest" rest more. He didn't even notice when the door opened again for someone to check that he was still there.

He just knew that he was warm, comfortable, and surrounded by the multitude of different smells that came together to form Sakura's light odour. Silky sheets wrapped around his body like a cocoon; down pillows cradled his head, and a gentle hand rested on his forehead checking to see if he'd gotten sick in the night.

"I'm fine, Sakura," Sasuke muttered, turning into the palm of the hand on his forehead. "Can you join me a while longer this time?"

"I," a distinctly male voice replied, "don't feel the need to sleep with you, Sasuke-san."

Sasuke's eyes shot wide open, greeted by a pair of laughing, brown ones.

"You really are out of it today," the man backed away to a comfortable distance. "Sakura said you might get sick because of how much work had to be done outside. There was no way of being absolutely sure they got all the debris out of your system last night. I guess you are getting a bit warm to think I'm a woman and want me in bed with you."

"You..." Sasuke sat up, trying to connect a name to the face, but he couldn't. "You're the one who used the wood to push my sword back."

"Hai," Tenzou nodded. "I was a fill-in captain for Kakashi now and then for your old team."

"And you're that ANBU Cat, aren't you?"

"That's right," Tenzou nodded. "Come on. Breakfast got cold, but there's other quick stuff we can make up for lunch. Sakura always keeps lunch meats and fruits for Tsuyomi to grab up whenever he wants."

"Are there tomatoes?"

Tenzou laughed a bit, helping Sasuke to his feet. "With the way your kids eat them up, you'll be lucky to find any even though grocery day was just yesterday."


	9. Exploration

Well, here it is, another installment. However, it's only a mere fifth the size of the first chapter... I'm so disappointed in myself right now...

* * *

The bedroom, main living area, and part of the dining room were all Sasuke had seen of this place in the time since Sakura had come to live here. Curiosity won out sometime after breakfast, driving him to see the changes made here. After all, he'd seen it plenty of times in his youth, when it was run by his aunt and uncle and filled to breaking with cousins. There was so much furniture and people everywhere back then that it was hard to move unless you were small enough to duck and weave between legs or talented and stupid enough to walk on the heavily adorned walls or ceilings with priceless light fixtures. Needless to say, he wasn't stupid enough to walk on the walls or ceiling like some cousins were, nor was he able to stray from his parents' and brother's sides to go through legs like the rest tended to do back then. Really, the only thing he could remember was the number of people and bunches of large furniture, bottoms of painting frames, and gentle lighting from above casting shadows everywhere and nowhere at once. He just hadn't been tall enough to see more than that back then.

First and foremost, Sasuke noted the lack of crowded furniture in the main room. Once the kids grew out of their baby toys and such, there would be even less clutter to deal with. Actually, the only adult furniture in the whole, long room was at the back right corner. A smooth, long sectional curved from the back door around the corner to nearly the study door by the hallway on the right. One large round table sat before it, and three cushioned stools sat around that opposite the sectional. The one on the farthest left created a bit of a flow between itself and the archway into the dining room towards the back door while the other two rounded out another flow towards the study door. Though large, still, the area gave off an intimate atmosphere as if only for close friends to gather there.

On the left hand side nearer the front door was the staircase which hid a half-bath. At the foot of the stair was where the archway into the diningroom began, taking up most of that wall all on its own. The long table within was the same one he remembered eating at once before as a child. it was low in a traditional style, pillows lining it on all sides for sitting. On the far wall was a wet bar he vaguely remembered Itachi being chased away from. In the corner near it was something new, however. It was a hutch that looked oh so familiar...and with the same old television sitting on top of it.

Sasuke forgot the rest of the house then, preferring instead to inspect the old treasure. He remembered sitting at the kitchen table every morning and listening to the news on that television sitting on that hutch. The evenings after that, he would rush home to watch anime with Itachi for an hour before dinner and then homework. Sometimes, when his parents didn't get along much or when his father was out for a mission or had extra work at the police office, he could even remember hearing his mother flipping through the channels for a romance, a cooking show, or something about animals and plant life to take her mind off of things. Sometimes Itachi would join her and comfort her, but Sasuke was never allowed because if Itachi was there, he might see their mother in a weak state. A weak state was something he was not supposed to see so young because it might let him know it was acceptable to be weak. Thus, he had to stay in his room and listen through the wall.

Those were bad memories, he knew, but they were genuine, still. Pulling back from the treasure on top, he opened the top door to find a newer radio inside, replacing the one that had served its purpose until getting a kunai ploughed into it when his father-- Again, another bad memory. Closing that, he opened the bottom door. Files were kept there still, just like before. This time, like before, he would not look at them. They weren't his business. They were Sakura's.

Standing back up and making sure he left few signs of touching anything there (besides wiping the dust off the television), he turned back around to look across the room at the kitchen. He'd never been allowed in there before. When his mother had helped to cook before, she left him under Itachi's wing and the two of them had run off out the back door to the communal garden and back home from there just to escape the annoying, tight press of people.

Curiosity catching back up with him, he walked around the table and cushions and through the double doors.

Right before him stood an island with a menagerie of pots, pans, measuring cups, spatulas, spoons, forks, and knives all hanging above it. To the right was another large counter space that elbowed over along the far wall and ending in a large gas range and grill. Directly to the left of that was a large freezer on the left wall. Next to that was the regular cooler, like a large refrigerator. Directly to his left and on the same wall as the double doors was a large spice rack going all the way up to the ceiling. It wasn't nearly as well stocked as it would have been, but even so he could see quite a bit more than your average kitchen for a large family on those shelves.

The front door was opening from the outside. Briefly he wondered if he would need to hide. Escaping through a window wasn't an option seeing as they were small and meant only to vent out hot air in the summer, not to actually provide a view. Then, Tenzou's voice was heard from down the hall greeting Sakura and the kids home. Tsuyomi was left at the academy for full orientation now that the opening cerimonies had ended. Sasuke's own children were grumbling for food, and Sakura ushered them into the diningroom gently.

"We've got one more coming over in a few minutes," Sakura informed Tenzou. "Where's our other guest?"

"Kitchen," Tenzou answered easily, though he sounded a little worried. "You alright?"

"Hmm?" Sakura asked, barely able to pay attention. "Yeah, I'm alright. Just worried about how he'll handle the news about Naruto and Tsunade-sama."

Sasuke's ears perked up at that one. What happened this time? Wait. Didn't she tell him earlier this morning that Naruto was conducting the opening--

"Sakura-chan!" said loud-mouth let himself through the front door like he owned the place, and this time, Sasuke really did hide--on the other side of the spice rack for now, but near enough to the cooler that he could slip inside if needed. The blond man now standing in the archway between the living area and the diningroom continued on happily. "I heard you have an extra guest today? Where is he? Huh?"

"Probably hiding from you," Sakura replied, making Sasuke smile. Ah, yes, she was _so_ right. "Now, would you at least do yourself a favor and hang that coat up in the closet before the kids get hold of you? Or do you want it ripped again and Tenten's father asking fifty more questions tomorrow when you go to get it repaired?"

"Right," Naruto excused himself back towards the front to where the long coat closet lay near the door.

Sakura slipped into the kitchen then, leaving Tenzou and Naruto with the three two-year-olds in the diningroom. She went straight to the island and sat on it under where the ladles and measuring cups hung, looking straight at Sasuke.

She was tired, he saw, and he knew it was all because of him showing up in the wee hours of the morning all busted up and in need of help. Then there was breakfast and four kids to deal with that wore her down even more well before the painstaking standing and standing of the opening ceremony for all new ninja academy students in which she must have had an even harder time just keeping Obito, Akaiko, and Itachi quiet and still enough not to draw more attention to themselves than the speakers and the new students like Tsuyomi.

"Get ready," she told him flat out. "Naruto was promoted just this morning."

"To jounin?" Sasuke teased, trying to lighten her mood just a little.

"Very funny, Sasuke-kun," she deadpanned. "To Hokage, an hour before the opening ceremony for the school. That's why we left out so early. It was for his public declaration. And it was a bit interesting considering he got hold of some of the Yondaime's things. He insisted on wearing a coat he got hold of two days ago and took for repairs yesterday... Only just found out this morning that he meant to wear it today, and that caused a bit of a stir with everybody. Some people thought Tsunade had actually brought back Namikaze-sama somehow... It almost got messy then, until Naruto repeated his own name like three times. People left after that."

"Does he know I'm here right now?" Sasuke asked, worried. "I did hear him asking about another guest."

"Yes," Sakura nodded. "Tsunade must have told him. Still, he was tactful enough to keep his trap shut until just then when you heard him come in."

"Kaa-san! Hungry!" a child's voice called loudly from the other side of the double doors.

"Hold on, baby, I'm working on it!" Sakura called back, sighing as she contemplated whether or not to get off the island. "Be my extra hand? Tenzou normally would, but he's probably keeping Naruto distracted right now."

"Hn," Sasuke shrugged, pushing off the wall and holding his arms out to catch her when she shoved off the waist high countertop.

"Thanks," Sakura gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "Know your way around yet?"

"Vaguely."

"Well that's good enough since we're just making spagetti."

"What's that?"

"Something with a high content of tomato paste and some chunks of fresh cut ones, too, to satisfy their appetites. They've gotten _that_ from you for sure."

The doors opened on them as they still stood, Sasuke's hands around Sakura's waist, her hands resting lightly on his shoulders, and their faces mere centimeters apart. Naruto was there, Jounin vest in place over a sleeveless tank that also showed off an ANBU tattoo.

"Hey, need a hand in he--" Naruto cut himself short at the sight just to his left. "Sasuke! You really are here!"

Sakura jumped out of the way just before Sasuke was pinned to the cooler door by a flash of blond, green, and blue, hints of orange all over the thing.

"Baka! Get. Off!" Sasuke barely got out from being hugged so hard by the slightly broader form of Naruto. "Choking!"

The doors opened again when Tenzou heard the thud of Sasuke's back hitting the cooler door. He looked in curiously, wondering if he needed to break up a fight or something of the sort. Instead he found Sakura smirking, holding back laughter. Looking farther to his left, he saw Sasuke freeing himself from Naruto's bone crushing hug through use of a small shock of chakra to startle the blond away.

"Ow, that HURT!" Naruto grumbled, rubbing his left shoulder as if burnt.

"Then don't try to kill me with a hug, damn it!" Sasuke retorted. "You said you'd break all my bones if I didn't come back, but I'm back and you're trying to do it anyway?"

"That's only 'cause Baa-chan told me you were leaving again!"

"And I have reason to," Sasuke answered, sharing a look with Sakura. "Don't tell me she and the council didn't give you a full update about it?"

"Kaa-san!" another child's voice broke out overtop of whatever reply Naruto had in store.

Sakura half groaned half growled and grabbed some crackers and poured three sippy cups full of apple juice and tossed the whole lot over to Tenzou. "Please?"

"Sure," Tenzou nodded, letting himself back into the diningroom hell that was about to begin. Would he be the next target for their food throwing the way Kakashi was last year? It was time to find out.


	10. Argue

Ah, what do you know, a bit of a longer chapter, though still not nearly as long as the first! At least the plot actually moves on in this one.

No lemons, but lots of arguing and some fighting are ahead, dear readers!

Oh, and it's actually two plot points in this one...up to five if you look at it sideways, I think.

* * *

Naruto's scowl deepened as he looked at the faces staring back at him. Oh, yes, it was time for at least one change in the council members. That one would have started off with Danzo but for one very good reason. Naruto still had no proof that it was Danzo's fault the messenger toad hadn't followed through with his duty the day Naruto returned to find his home in ruins about eight years ago. If he pushed the old man out, how then could he keep a close eye on him? Danzo had all the resources and followers needed to start a civil war right now. If he couldn't be imprisoned right on the spot, he had to be somewhat placated until that time was possible.

Next on his list was the bitter woman from Sandaime's old team. Koharu was especially loyal to Danzo lately, but she had far less numbers on her side. All she brought in was opinion. The old man, Homura was at odds with Koharu about a lot of things after the woman's siding with Danzo led to so much destruction and the woman only sat back and told him it had to be done for the greater good. He would definitely be kept. He understood life as being sacred even if you didn't have any love for it.

When he proposed to the whole council the replacement of Koharu with Tsunade, everyone, including the gentler Koharu, went into an uproar believing that Tsunade was playing at something. In all honestly, it was only Naruto's thought to have the replacement like that. If he suggested someone like Kakashi, what then would happen? After all, when he did get a chance to throw out Danzo (and he would. Oh he _would!_) that was his next choice for war council. Kakashi or Shikamaru, but Shikamaru would refuse and had decent reasons to do so considering his wife and child currently held court back in Suna. Kakashi had no such excuses, and Tsunade had already proven her worth as Godaime Hokage. At least Naruto believed so.

"We pushed her to step down for a reason, boy!" Opaaru, the woman sitting between Koharu and Danzo spoke out clearest of them all. "She let far too many things get passed her nose before dealing with them. We're still trying to figure out what Uchiha Sasuke's point of entry has been, and she must know! Yet she refuses to speak! How are we to stop his constantly leaving again so easily each and every time he's within our grasp?"

"Which is a part of why," Homura cut in, "we endorsed your becoming Hokage in the first place. We all know how hard you've tried to return him to Konoha where he belongs. Unlike Tsunade, you are out to bring the strays back into order."

And that comment was exactly why Naruto's scowl deepened. Such a comment was almost on par with something Danzo would have said. Then again, Danzo would have suggested killing all said "strays." Homura just wanted them "back into order." Translation: home, safe, not a threat any longer. True to Naruto's thoughts, however, Danzo spoke up now.

"We need to put some of my own men on the walls now with orders to kill Uchiha Sasuke on sight," he said. "We cannot have him taking away our best and brightest kunoichi consistently because of raping the poor things and making them think they wanted it all to begin with. He's using his kekke genkai against our people within our own walls!"

"I believe we already settled that subject nine months ago durring our last session with the Godaime Hokage," Yakei, the man to Danzo's left pointed out. "As long as he is not caught by our regular people and sticks to the one woman, we will not pursue him. When at least one of his children is able to activate their own Sharingan, we will take into consideration the whole of his deeds, both against and for Konoha before passing judgment. We _must_ have the Sharingan continued here, in our reach, and we _must not_ jeopardise that future by killing off the one man who can still pass it on to future generations. The three children already born and the two on the way are still vulnerable and weak. If someone we cannot controle harbors enough anger and hatred for Uchiha-san and kills those five off and we've went and killed off Sasuke ourselves, we won't have that kekke genkai ever again. Is that what you all want?"

Murmurs of agreement to Yakei's long winded statement were heard throughout the room. Only Danzo seemed to protest.

"I already have a way of spreading the Sharingan kekke genkai back into our population without his help," he answered after the murmurs died off.

"Speak, Danzo," Naruto ordered when no one else dared. "How do you propose this?"

"Give one of Haruno Sakura's sons to me. I will keep him through puberty and harvest his seed while he works under my section of ANBU the same as your old teammate Sai did. We can have many children created then with the potential--"

"I will never allow such a thing!" Naruto hissed at him. "How dare you even _think_ that I would order my best friend--or any other woman for that matter--to give up one of her children to live away from his whole family just for the sake of fulfilling something like that? I agree with the rest of the council. We will trap Uchiha Sasuke after the first three of his children are no-longer helpless. Haruno Sakura will be willing to help with that task when the time comes."

"Can you be sure she will?" Danzo prodded.

"Of couse I can," Naruto practically laughed at the old man. "She is the one who made me promise to bring him home in the first place. Now, can we all please get back to the matter at hand? I'm still suggesting that it is time for Koharu-san to retire and that Senju Tsunade is a candidate to fill that seat back."

"Do you have any _other_ suggestions, perhaps?" Opaaru asked a bit too sweetly.

"Yes," Naruto nodded, "except all three of those people aren't willing or able to sit here with you at this time."

"Tell us who."

"No."

"Uzumaki--" Koharu stood, somehow still so graceful despite her physical issues catching up with her these days.

"You have no say in this, Koharu, seeing as it is your seat that's being voted on here," Homura snapped at the woman. "Sit down."

Oh yes, this was going to be a long meeting today. How did all five before him deal with this?

.

.

.

.

Mayonaka walked through the maze of the Uchiha complex, barely remembering Sasuke's instructions on how to find the right house. It didn't take long, though, considering there was a racket coming from the only inhabited place in the area. Three three-year-olds were out in the front beating one another with brightly colored foam tubes, all dressed in bathing suits and lathered with funky colored sunscreen lotion that made them look like smurfs or something to that effect.

The seven-year-old blond meant to watch them ended up being their group target for a couple seconds before Mayonaka made it up to the four, startling all of their one-track-minds at once.

"Mayonaka-san!" Tsuyomi smiled up at her, blocking a swing of a green foam tube Obito flung his way. "Are you coming swimming with us today?"

"Actually, no," Mayonaka replied. "Though I do have something I need to give to Sakura. Is she here?"

"Nah," Tsuyomi answered. "She's at the hospital having the babies looked at again. It's just Neji-oji and Tenten-oba right now, but we're going to be meeting Sakura-kaa-san later for dinner."

"Oh, well that's alright," Mayonaka replied, trying not to sound frustrated. It had taken forever to shake her sister off and get here to give Sakura the letter from Sasuke...a letter she didn't even know any of the contents of in the least! "Can you do me a favor and go put this on her bed or something then?"

Tsuyomi held out his hand to take the letter, then hesitated as he looked over his younger siblings. "You'll watch them for me?"

"No need, I can take it," Tenten stepped out, lugging a small cooler behind her, followed by Neji who had the job of carrying all the towels and inflatable toys. "It's been a while since you've been in town, too. Where'd you disappear off to anyway?"

"Oh, my uncle's got some trouble at home and needed a hand," Mayonaka waved her off, telling half-truth. "He's taking over the business, but some of the other employees thought there was something fishy about it all, but his old boss really did die like they said he did. But that doesn't mean they'd let him get in so easily, you know?"

Mayonaka was babbling now, and that usually worked to get rid of people's interests. Not so much with Tenten, it seemed.

"And how did he die?" Tenten pressed. "Your uncle's old boss, that is."

"I don't know, but Oji-san says it's under investigation still. So, I guess he's not allowed to say."

"Local investigations only?" Neji asked, wondering why he hadn't heard of it himself. Most investigational requests were sent to the Hyuuga clan anymore, but he didn't hear of anything concerning the Shaberu family.

"A personal friend of my Oji, actually," Mayonaka replied. "He's young, but we trust him enough."

"I see," Neji nodded, taking the cooler from Tenten while she went inside to put away the letter, respectfully unopened.

When Tenten came back out again, Mayonaka was walking off, back out of the Uchiha compound to the rest of her day. Neji, however, was watching her suspiciously.

"What is it?" Tenten touched his shoulder, worried at his utter concentration on the other woman.

Though he spoke to Tenten, Neji continued to watch the other woman as she turned a corner, "She's hiding quite a lot, and it's got everything to do with whomever she claims is looking into the suspicious death."

"Should I go get the letter back out?"

"No, but we'll have to be there when Sakura opens it."

"Can it really wait that long?"

"Mayonaka-san isn't in any hurry."

Tenten understood what he meant. If the woman didn't believe they were suspicious--and Neji would know--they had time to trap her. With a roll of her shoulders, Tenten re-took the cooler and called the children to follow them on to the park. It was time to just cool off and relax. They'd sort things out with Sakura later.

.

.

ああああああああああああああああああ

.

.

Sai really didn't have much love for Uchiha Sasuke, but he did feel a bit of a connection to the man's offspring. Their mother had gone out of her way to help him integrate into society better since the day she learned they were on the same side, and both she and Naruto had lit something behind his eyes again, something in his heart. Had it not been for her, he would never have seen how much Naruto was like his old brother-at-heart. He would not have felt the warmth of a real smile on his own face followed by one on another person's for a job well failed.

That job, of course, being to retrieve the Uchiha.

He even felt somewhat flattered that Sasuke had used a transformation into an older version of himself in order to see his babies the day they had been born. Though that did cause some problems when Sai decided to see them at the same time.

It wasn't the children themselves he wanted to see so much as he wanted to see a baby up close for the first time. It had been curiosity that drew him into that room, curiosity about how strong people like the ones he was surrounded by daily could not have always been so fortified. Everyone started off weak, small, and dependent on others. He just wanted to know what that looked like, though he had little doubt as to the fact that those weak little things would strengthen if watched carefully.

Everyone he knew had.

What he hated the most, now that he understood the emotion inside of him that correlated to what was described as hate, was being told to end the lives of two children before they could ever see the light of day. The little brother and sister to the children he'd first seen in Sakura's arms.

Danzo wanted to kill off any extra hope the rest of the council could have for a larger start to rebuilding the Uchiha. He wanted that name destroyed, too, but the Sharingan to fall into his hands by way of the three already living.

He wanted the two unborn children to die, and the three older ones to be kidnapped and brought back to him for "safe keeping."

Sai knew first hand what that meant. Obito would die for sure. Itachi would become sickly almost as surely. Akaiko would be raped as soon as she hit puberty so that sex missions later on wouldn't be physically painful enough to detract her from her job. And it would happen repeatedly until she lost the ability to connect emotion with physical contact of even that sort. She would become emotionless and dead in all ways except a heartbeat and a kunai in her hand.

He wouldn't allow that to happen. Not to those three precious, small lives that had yet to know any more pain than the lack of their father being around.

And Sakura... If she survived the murder of her unborn children, she would be broken completely. She would no longer be the woman he had come to respect as a kunoichi of high caliber, and a woman tougher than himself on all counts. She had a much wider range of emotions playing on her mind at all times and yet she still held it together much more than he believed himself capable.

Not even the man who had agreed to the job knew he was shadowing the pregnant woman all day, even into the bath house.

It was so simple.

He'd simply changed his appearance to be that of a clueless, young blond woman bumping and blundering her way through life. Sakura saw the blond girl and took pity on her, inviting her to dinner and the bath after. Sai played his part well, having studied all kinds of people and picking up acting skills well enough to pass even Yamanaka Ino's notice.

It was in the bath house that he had a bit of trouble not staring at some of the prettier women in his mind. He liked them with more curves than kunoichi tended to have, and there were plenty of curvy women around to distract the mind. Sai hid this, though, behind a mask of embarrassment for his blond outside as if she were afraid to be seen naked even though he was really just warm in the cheeks for having so many lovely things to look at.

In the water itself, steam helped shield his eyes from most of the distractions, and water did some of the rest. However, he then had to reach out more with his senses other than eyes, ears, and smell. He had to keep extra attention on everyone so close to him without giving away that he wasn't the bumbling blond civilian girl and actually a highly skilled shinobi man in his twenties.

He almost missed the strike when it came from behind his protected target.

The other man had had similar ideas of disguise, hiding himself as just another regular woman in the crowd until close enough to shove a kunai at Sakura's skull from behind. In that same moment when Sai caught the casual looking woman pulling out a weapon from nowhere, he was between the attacker and Sakura in the form of an ink clone. He himself kept hidden as the girl, knowing that the attention would not be on him any longer, but rather his clone and the transformed man attacking the young mother.

The other man dropped his jutsu in favor of fighting off the clone, and things looked like the clone would lose badly before Sai himself gave up pretenses and joined the battle.

Ink and blood stained the waters by the time it ended, not all of it being that of the offender's. Some of that blood had indeed been Sakura's, but only a graze across her cheek. A few drops of Sai's joined the mixture, too, thought he main culprit came from an opened throat in the form of Sakura's attacker--a fellow ROOT member...

Needless to say, he got reprimanded more than three times for following Sakura around. Only one dressing down actually got a response, though.

Sakura just told him off for not sending in another--female--person to follow her into the bath. Several women screeched at him for the same thing. Naruto told him off for not informing the "right" people. Danzo, however, nearly took his head off.

When the council questioned him on how he knew to follow her around, he stated the facts. Danzo had wanted him to take Sakura's babies out himself. He had refused. Knowing that Danzo would just find another, Sai followed her to make sure she was safe. She wasn't, and he stepped in to protect her.

Thus Danzo went on a rampage trying to discredit him. The rest of the council, however, shoved him right out of his privileged council status and into a holding cell. Nara Shikaku was offered his old spot within two days even though Koharu still remained and wanted Danzo back.

Sai, like many others he knew to include the new Hokage, was just happy to know Sakura hadn't left his life and her children would not suffer at the same hands that had created his old self.

.

.

ああああああああああああああああああ

.

.

"A--Ayame?" Sakura looked up at the woman she'd just bumped shoulders with when leaving her latest check-up.

"Oh, hello, Sakura-san," Ichiraku Ayame backed off a step, blushing a bit in embarrassment for having literally run into the other woman at the door. "How are you?"

"I'm good, and these two are doing much better lately, too." Sakura caressed her bulging abdomen lovingly.

"That's good to hear," Ayame nodded. "You think you'll be able to make the wedding?"

"No, I'm sorry," Sakura frowned. "They're due the day before, so... You know."

"Next week?" Ayame's eyes widened. "Should you even be on your feet like this? Who's here to help you get home?"

Sakura smiled and waved her down again. "Don't worry so much, Ayame! Don't you remember that I've got two ANBU practically attached to my hips lately?"

Ayame smiled, remembering how Iruka had teased about asking Kakashi to let Tenzou handle Sakura and come over to watch Ayame all the time. "Yes. I know. Still, I haven't seen them around today."

"Kakashi-senpai said he would meet me here by the time my check-up started, so I'm expecting him sometime after I finish lunch across the road."

"And what are you supposed to do durring the mean time?" the older woman's eyebrow rose up.

"Be careful?" Sakura asked, not really knowing what to do herself.

"I'm not having that," Ayame took Sakura's hand and pulled her out with her, walking off to the nurse's station instead of towards the exit.

"Where are we going? What about your appointment?" Sakura demanded, confused even as she allowed herself to be pulled along.

"Mitsuki," Ayame called over a civilian nurse, "is my fiancee still around?"

"He's with Ebisu, I believe, on the next floor," the dark-haired woman replied, flipping her glossy black hair over her shoulder. "What's up?"

"Hatake is being his usual self," Ayame answered casually, pulling Sakura's arm once again. This time she headed for an elevator, only to have to wait for it to return from the floor above, already bearing Iruka inside.

"Ah, Sakura-chan!" Iruka reached out both arms, one to each woman standing before him. "How have you been?"

"Unprotected is how she's been!" Ayame answered before Sakura could open her mouth. "Hatake-san is supposed to be watching her right now. He's already at least an hour late, and she wants to get some food. Those babies are due next week, you know? We can't let her go hungry _or_ all alone. I'd go with her myself, but my appointment is in fifteen minutes, you know?"

"Mah, that's no problem," Iruka sighed. "I'll take you while Ayame-kun is at her appointment. Sound good?"

"Oh, thank you, Iruka-kun!" Ayame hugged him a little tighter, though Sakura just stared at the woman across from her. Ayame had completely manipulated the situation when she could have asked for his company herself. There was no need--_absolutely none_--for Ayame to go on and on like that.

Then again, Sakura had no room to talk. Ino had taught her how to do it to people like Shikamaru and Choji, and then she'd tested her skills against others like Tenzou, Kiba, and even Kakashi himself. Tenzou was a big softy from the start whenever she used the kids on him. Kiba only did things when she complained about her physical situation simply because he hated the fact that the kids weren't his and he didn't want to help them, just her. Kakashi, however, was harder to crack. But then she learned to put a light limp in her step, sigh a certain way, or just give in to her pain and hold her aching back and he would jump in to help her. Of course, it was only to keep her from self injury as he would say. She knew better.

"Really, I think I can manage on my own, but thank you anyway," Sakura tried to back out of the whole thing. If she was accompanied by Iruka now, she knew he would just bombard her with questions about infant care and what to expect through Ayame's pregnancy. Of course he already knew how to keep kids in line, comfort them when they were down, encourage them when they were off the mark, put them in their places when they were too full of themselves, and track them through all Konoha when they pulled a prank and ran off to view the damage from afar--as she herself had been one of those kids that had given him the run-around once or twice durring her early school days.

"Sakura-chan, don't argue with Ayame-kun, please," Iruka sighed. "She's right. Not to mention I am hungry, too, and Hatake-san will need a good dressing down for this one. He should not allow you to go about alone like this. It's dangerous even for a normal woman in your state!"

"Like you could dress him down for anything," Ayame muttered, but Sakura's voice was louder.

"I take it you've heard about what happened last week, then?" Sakura asked, her voice not as shaky as she feared it might have come out.

"I heard Danzo sent someone after you, yes," Iruka nodded. "I also heard he tried to get your teammate--Sai--to do it first."

"Right while Naruto was in council defending me again," Sakura hugged herself a bit. "If Sai hadn't known..."

"So, will you let me escort you this time?" Iruka asked, already knowing the answer. "I'm no ANBU, but I can make a big enough scene to draw their attention as sure as the sky is blue and your hair is pink!"

"Please, Sakura-san," Ayame patted Sakura's hand around Iruka's back where the man still held them both and they him. "_Please_?"

"But what about you, Ayame-san?" Sakura asked, slightly giving in now that the woman's manipulative pleading was focused on her. "Who will watch over you?"

"I'll come join you when I get out," Ayame replied, waving her off. "Besides, I'm not the one in danger here."


	11. Abandonment

**Wow, so I do have an excuse for the time it took to get this up.**

**My boyfriend was in town from sunday to friday afternoon (it's already past midnight here), and all my time was devoted to him, even the small time I did get online.**

**Absolutely no writing was done durring that time, and I wasn't really sure if I wanted some of the scenes included here.**

Be prepared, Kakashi and Iruka have an argument about Ayame. Sasuke is finding slightly smarter ways of infiltrating, and Tsuyomi is learning more about protecting his family.

Why are the triplets not nagging their father this time? Wait and see!

* * *

"Oji-san?"

Neji looked down to his little cousin, wondering what the question would be this time. Lately, the boy had more questions concerning homework than anything, but this was summer break. Still, he figured it was either that or about food.

"Hai, Tsuyomi-chan?" Neji replied.

"Why has that man been watching my imoto and ototora so much?"

Neji followed Tsuyomi's line of sight, and saw one of the elders standing a little ways down the path. He seemed to be making a point of watching the three Uchiha children where everyone could see. What exactly that point was, however, was unclear. Did it mean harm to them soon, or that he was watching over them the same as Neji and Tenten were currently doing?

Yakei raised his eyes the moment he felt the Hyuuga's eyes on him, smiling quietly as he then approached Neji carefully. "Hyuuga-san."

"Yakei-sama," Neji greeted stiffly. "Can I help you this afternoon?"

"Just make sure those kids are well protected...as if it were your own S-rank for indefinite time," Yakei replied, pulling a small purse from an inner pocket of his left sleeve. "I will pay for this endeavor on behalf of most of the council..."

"Sakura is already paying us to baby-sit," Neji didn't bother to raise a hand to push the purse away. "Protecting them from others is a part of that anyway,"

"I was hoping that you might realise how serious the situation actually is..."

"Oh we know," Neji shot back. "We know, and we care. Besides, Tsuyomi-chan has taken it upon himself to keep an eye on them, too. He spotted you first."

Yakei reached down to ruffle the seven-year-old's hair, but the boy stepped back just quickly enough to avoid the hand. In a flash, Yakei found that the boy was up on Neji's shoulders ruffling Yakei's own hair instead.

"How do _you_ like it, old man?" Tsuyomi asked, a smirk on his face. "I bet you _don't_ like it at all."

Yakei frowned up at the child as he stepped back and ran his fingers through his hair to get it back into place. "No. I see your point, Tsuyomi-chan."

"Don't you have a meeting in a few minutes to be at?" Neji asked pointedly. Whether or not there was such a meeting, he had no way of knowing, but he wanted this to stop before Tsuyomi got any more suspicious.

Yakei seemed to get the drift, but he ignored it. "It's been pushed back in favor of meeting Yashu-san."

"My Kaa-san?" Tsuyomi's interest peaked again.

Yakei nodded. "I have a few things to discuss with her."

Neither Neji or Tsuyomi liked his tone, but Yakei didn't respond. Instead he departed from their immediate presence and went to another part of the park.

"Oji-san, I have to follow him!" Tsuyomi demanded from his position on Neji's shoulders.

"Stay here, Tsuyomi-chan," Neji set his hands on the boy's legs to keep him from running off after the elderly councilman. "This is where you're needed."

Sure enough, Akaiko was on the ground screaming a millisecond later, but it turned out to have just been a fight over a cookie between her brothers that she joined. Being the strongest of the three to this day, she pulled too hard for either of them and they had teamed up against her, pulling her to the ground roughly and ruining their treat at the same time.

"Who started it?" Tenten asked a moment later.

Akaiko pointed to Obito, who pointed to Itachi, who pointed to Obito.

"Boys!" Tenten smacked a hand to her face, failing to cover her grimace. "I gave both of you three cookies and told you each to give one to your sister. Then you'd all have two. Why couldn't you just share correctly?"

Obito was grinning with cookie bits still stuffing his cheeks like a squirrel. He had effectively eaten all three handed to him, started on two more, and was caught with the third one going to his mouth by Itachi when Akaiko had noticed the food.

"All the cookies now go to your Nii-san after lunch," Tenten told them sternly, removing her hand to look the three over critically. "You are family. A team! You should always look after one another not try to hurt each other. Do you understand?"

.

.

.

.

Lunch finished, Ayame caught back up to Iruka and Sakura, and still Kakashi wasn't around. Iruka created a bushin then and sent it off in search of the excessively late jounin while he and Ayame walked Sakura to the park where she had promised to meet up with Tenten, Neji, and the kids later on in the afternoon.

It was on the way there that the two women again bumped into Iruka...and he had found Kakashi. Sakura pushed Ayame back out of sight, but kept them within ear-shot. She wanted to know if Kakashi gave Iruka some stupid excuse for not showing, or if there was a genuine answer for things this time. Ayame was careful to keep as quiet as possible, not sure exactly why Sakura was behaving the way she did and unwilling to push the issue.

"I'm not here about us, Kakashi," Iruka said lowly, clearly frustrated with the man before him. "I'm here about Sakura-chan. You didn't come for her when you said you would. It's been three hours total. How could you leave her alone like that?"

"She wasn't alone, Iruka-san," Kakashi replied bitterly. "Obviously, she had you and Ayame to keep her company or you wouldn't have known I was missing."

The sufex Kakashi now insisted at putting with Iruka's name made the brunet flinch every time he heard it. Kakashi did it on purpose, just another way to prod his old lover again for the betrayal of leaving him for a woman he now planned to marry...was having a child with... Damn, but two years wasn't enough to ease the hurt any from Kakashi's standpoint. When he saw Ayame and Iruka going into the hospital while he himself was on the way to Sakura, Kakashi had to turn around ant leave. Ayame hadn't really done anything wrong. Few knew of her fiancee's former love interest, and he doubted she knew until well after Iruka had asked her to mary him six months prior to this very day.

"Kakashi--" Iruka started again, but the mask-wearing man cut him off.

"Why were _you_ there anyway? You and your _woman_ both looked completely healthy walking in there earlier."

So then it was out. Iruka knew it was his and Ayame's presence that kept Kakashi back now.

"Ayame had her first pre-natal check-up today," Iruka stepped back wisely, his hands fighting the urge to rise up in protection of the blow he just knew was coming.

Kakashi's hands balled up into fists at his sides, his visible eye shutting tight as his jaw clenched even tighter. His voice was that of tightly controlled rage when he spoke again, "Congratulations then. You'd better take care of them both better than you took care of me."

Sakura watched helplessly as Iruka dared to look away for one guilty second. Still, instead of lashing out, Kakashi only fled the whole scene. He moved as fast as possible without running like some frightened animal or using any jutsu to just poof away like usual. He wanted Iruka to know how hurt he was...and Sakura briefly wondered what he would have been like had the poison that killed Uchiha Madara still been in his system. If he was this bad now...? And what did he mean about taking care of Ayame better than Kakashi?

"Kakashi, you know I would do it again if you needed it," Iruka spoke quietly to Kakashi's back. "I would still come to you."

"And betray her?" Kakashi asked, still facing away, hands still fisted. "You're better than that, Iruka. You did dump me first before going to her. I like her. Don't betray her just for me...just because I need you back. You have a baby to take care of now. That's more important than me and my feelings."

"Kakashi, it's not that I don't care--"

"Save it!" Kakashi rounded on him again, this time allowing a little bit of anger to show through his voice. "Just shut up unless you're going to tell me where to find Sakura."

"She's standing over there by that wall with Ayame," Iruka replied cooly, letting Kakashi know just how big of a fool he really was. First off, he hadn't noticed where Sakura was this whole time. Secondly, he didn't notice that she was standing right beside the woman Kakashi was jealous of in the first place...and he'd said all that right infront of them. "Hiding from you."

.

.

ああああああああああああああああああ

.

.

Kakashi lay on the bed without even taking his shoes off. It was his turn to stay with Sakura, but he didn't much feel like staying downstairs with them tonight. Nope. Not this time. Not after what she heard him say and saw him do with Iruka the day before. Instead, he just walked up the stairs and into the door of a small, apartment-like space, through the small living area and straight into the bedroom, sat down on the trunk at the foot of the bed, and fell backwards to stare up at the ceiling, head not quite in the middle of the bed.

He thanked whatever god was listening to his prayers yesterday that made Sakura merciful enough not to report him to Tsunade for leaving her like that. Instead he just got his guilt trip of the year and a dressing down from the pregnant mini-Tsunade. And then she hugged him.

Well, she hugged him as best as she could considering the kids between them...reminding him yet again what it was Iruka wanted that he couldn't give...that Ayame could. And so he confined himself here, leaving Pakkun downstairs to get his fur pulled out by the brats' sticky hands. Let Pakkun deal with the so-called "joys" of children. Damn children...

He had to remind himself that the ones below him really didn't deserve his hatred. No living child, born or still in the womb, deserved his ire. And people like Sakura and Ayame shouldn't get his envy just because they could give their loved-ones such gifts. It wasn't their fault he was a man in every sense of the word...except one. He just couldn't have them himself thanks to fate and injuries to option number one getting crushed years ago. And it wasn't like he was a woman who could bear Iruka's kids the way Ayame could. Things just didn't work that way.

Soft knocking at the hall door near the stairwell rousted him from dour thoughts long enough to stand back up and answer it.

Tsuyomi stood with a tray of food in his hands, and Pakkun by his side. "Kaa-san sent this 'cause she knows you want to be alone tonight."

"Aa," Kakashi opened the door wider so that the boy could bring it in and set it on the low table near the corner couch. "Thank you."

"You're lucky Naruto's new mate is here tonight to help cook," Pakkun grunted after a bite of the food Tsuyomi sat down on the floor for him. "Sakura can barely stand any longer. You should be down there with her."

"Pakkun-san, Kaa-san told you he was mad at someone!" Tsuyomi swatted the pug on the nose as if to punish a normal dog.

"He does that quite well, ne, Tsuyomi-chan?" Kakashi grunted. "But he's right. I'm just sulking."

"Sakura-kaa-san said you got into a fight with sensei yesterday," Tsuyomi sat down on the automen near the rocking chair in the corner, making himself at home in the little apartment-like space. "Can you tell me? Or is it too adult for me to understand?"

Kakashi regarded the boy for a moment, then sat down on the end of the sofa nearest the child and inspected his food. Miso soup and potato dumplings with a side of brownies for dessert and a tall glass of cherry soda to wash it down with. Odd choice, but it would do. It seemed Yashu had done more of it than Sakura, or she would have known not to give him cherry soda. He only liked that with boiled and salted edamame. Still, he would take it. He would take anything right now to get his mind back on track by taking care of his stomach first.

"Actually, I think you can understand it to a certain extent by now," he commented, handing over one of the two brownies to the boy.

"I ate already," Tsuyomi grinned, "but Kaa-san doesn't have to know about this, does she?"

"Of course not," Kakashi smiled back at the boy.

"So," Tsuyomi took a bite of the brownie, "what happened between you and sensei?"

"Well, what do you know of love?"

Tsuyomi looked at him strangely, swallowed his bite, and replied. "I know I love my brothers and sisters and my dad and both my moms and my uncle and--"

"Okay," Kakashi held up a hand. "Now, what do you know of the kind of love your dad has for your moms?"

"Well... He loves Sakura-kaa-san like he loves me, I think. Yashu-kaa-san is different, though. He kisses her on the mouth a lot, and he holds her differently. She's like his ramen or something he loves her so much!"

"That's right. Now, did you know that your sensei loves a woman that way, too?"

Tsuyomi nodded and spoke around another bite of sweets, "He said he was going to be a dad, that Ayame-san from the ramen place is pregnant like Sakura-kaa-san is."

"He used to look at me the way he looks at her." Kakashi deadpanned. "He and I used to love each other like he loves her now, and it really hurts me. Do you understand?"

"No..."

Kakashi took a deep breath. How to explain it in simpler terms? "Let's say your dad and your mamma Yashu got into a fight because she's not having a baby like they keep trying for. What if it got so bad that they couldn't stand to be around one another because every time they see each-other, they just get into another fight about having babies that just won't happen? Then they break up and don't live together anymore, and your dad finds some other woman just a few months later. And two years after that they're having a baby that Yashu couldn't have and are going to get married and be a family without Yashu. How do you think she would feel?"

"Very mad and hurt...betrayed by Tou-san," Tsuyomi replied. "It's not her fault she can't have babies like Sakura-kaa-san can!"

"Now don't get worked up, Tsuyomi, I didn't mean that was what was happening with them," Kakashi reminded. "It was just a hypothesis, but...that's pretty much what happened with Iruka and I. I can't have children the way other men can because I got hurt when I wasn't much older than you, and since I'm not a woman I can't have kids like Sakura can, either, right? So Iruka was really frustrated and upset about it because we weren't allowed to adopt either, and he left me for Ayame-san. Now they're having a baby and getting married, two things he couldn't do with me. Do you understand now?"

"I don't understand why you couldn't adopt a kid, though," Tsuyomi replied. "I mean...isn't that why some people can't have kids? Fate wants them to take in the kids who lost their parents, doesn't it?"

"Maybe so, but you have to be approved to take care of those kids. Two men living together aren't allowed everything that a man and a woman living together are in our world. It's looked down on when two men or two women love each other the way your Tou-san loves your Yashu-kaa-san, and so they aren't considered fit to be parents unless they have one of their own with a woman who's alright with letting them care for it."

Tsuyomi was thoughtful again. "So then...why doesn't Ayame-san just let you and Iruka-sensei take care of her baby? It was made with sensei, right? So you should be allowed to be its Tou-san just like I have two Kaa-sans."

"You're a whole different case, chibi," Kakashi answered. "Sakura saved you from death and Yashu married your father. You were lucky to have three kinds of moms, two of which can still be here for you. Things just don't work that way with men, though. I know you don't really understand the politics of sexuality yet, but you will one day when you start dating girls. You'll know why so many ninja just stay single and avoid the whole thing."

"I'm not gonna be alone all my life!" Tsuyomi replied, so very determined. "I will be like my Tou-san and have love and become Hokage and have lots of kids like Sakura-kaa-san and marry someone that looks at me like Yashu-kaa-san looks at my Tou-san and I'll make it so people like you and sensei can adopt kids, too!"

Kakashi chuckled and leaned back into the pillows of the sofa. "Really? All of those things are very hard to do...except having a lot of kids, but that's a different story. You sure you can do even one of them?"

"If my Tou-san could do it when all those people hated him, so can I," Tsuyomi's eyes flared brightly, the milky color almost drowning out the blue tint completely for a split second. "Just because my Sofu and all of the Hyuuga except Neji-oji-san think I'm trash doesn't mean I can't do it. I will do it!"

"Who said you were trash?" Kakashi narrowed his eyes at the boy sitting before him. Most of the village loved him as far as Kakashi knew. Maybe the kids at school set him apart from the rest and didn't play with him because of his parentage being a bit on the high-end? Did they just expect him to be better right off the bat because he had famous parents and a kekke genkai? It was highly possible considering what had happened to Sasuke.

"All the Hyuuga think so," Tsuyomi looked at his feet as he swung them back and forth over the carpet. "And there's only a couple people at school who will talk to me besides the teachers, but one of them really hates me. He always makes fun of me because I'm bad at math and stuff like that."

"I bet it's because he's bad at practical stuff that you're good at," Kakashi answered, wanting to both answer truthfully and give the boy a boost of self-esteem. "Am I right? He's not much better on paper and much worse on real stuff that you're good with?"

"That's what Tetsu said," Tsuyomi frowned. "I don't know, though, 'cause she's really good on the written tests and average on the practical stuff like Kyomaru is, but even Kyomaru can make up for it since he's like me and can use juuken..."

"Hmm..." Kakashi leaned forward and tipped Tsuyomi's chin up so that they looked at one another eye-to-eye now. "Let me let you in on a little secret, Tsuyomi-chan. When it came down to the chunin exam for Naruto and Sakura, Sakura passed her written test with minimal effort. Naruto, though, shocked us all, because, when Ibiki went to pick up the test papers after the written portion was done there was your father's paper with only his name written on it. He got through the first part of his first time taking the test with a blank sheet. So, you see, as long as you can make it in the real world, it won't matter if you have trivial weaknesses as long as you can make up for them in other areas. He did it through loyalty and then tricking Sakura into not raising her hand and leaving at the end. Yes, she almost quit, but Naruto didn't let her."

"But to do something like that, I still have to pass the written tests now when I'm not even a genin. Sensei bases whether or not we get to test out at the end of the year by the written stuff just as much as the practical stuff. I'm screwed."

"Then get someone who will help you study or can show you what is being asked on paper with a practical situation," Kakashi answered easily. "Like this...What would you do if you were alone and had to take down a short-range specialist, but you had only one long-range weapon and couldn't use any jutsu?"

"I'd be wondering where the other people that I came with were," Tsuyomi answered.

"They're knocked out, maybe even dead."

"I'd get to them and wake them up."

"Your enemy is between you and your team."

"I'd find a way around him."

"Stop avoiding the conflict, Tsuyomi. There ware always more barriers I can add. Just answer the question as if you were really there."

"Um..." he thought for a moment.

"Too late," Kakashi stated before the boy even finished looking at the ceiling. "He would have killed you by now."

"But that's not fair! If this were a written test, I'd have more time to answer that question!"

"Life and fights are seldom fair, if ever," Kakashi raised a finger at him. "However, you're thinking about everything but the question I actually asked you. I never asked how to reach your team or how to get around him. I asked you to take him out."

Tsuyomi looked a bit put off. It reminded him of a test Iruka had once given his class that started off telling them to read all the questions and instructions to the end before beginning. At the end it just said to ignore everything else and just put your name on it and turn it in. The rest of the questions and such were meaningless because of the original and final instructions. He had a hard time with that one, too, simply because he didn't follow the very first instruction.

"Follow your orders, and do your job. If you were given this situation practically, you most-likely would better understand the importance of going through your opponent rather than around him, but because it's on paper the danger isn't there and you're not forced to think quite so critically. You see? Now...how do you get around a long-range fighter you've been battling at mid-range for a long time and are tired? Your goal of a precious scroll is through the doors behind him, and you have no back-up. He knows you're a close-range type at heart, but won't let you back off because he's seen you use a long-range, too. Now what?"

"I'd make a distraction to get him to look up so that I can sock it to him," Tsuyomi answered easily.

"And how do you know that it might work?"

"Because it worked on Neji-oji-san last week when he got between me and my bedroom at bedtime," Tsuyomi smiled.

Kakashi grinned in response. "Both questions were essentially the same, but because you identified the opponent with your Oji due to the close-range bit, you knew what to do. See? Just think about it as if you're there and the written stuff gets easier."

"Wow! Thanks, Kakashi-jii-san!" Tsuyomi tackled the man with a hug to the neck before bounding down the stairs and yelling to the others that he would be getting better grades from now on. Kakashi didn't even have the time to protest being called an old man.

.

.

ああああああああああああああああああ

.

.

It was the day before B-day, and Sakura found herself with a house full of helpers and guards alike. It had started with just Yashu and Kakashi three days prior. Lee came by the next morning, and Ino that evening. The day before saw Tenzou, Tenten, Neji, Kyomaru (Neji and Tenten's son), Naruto, Sai, Kiba, Akamaru, Hana (Kiba's sister), and even Tsunade coming over. All would stay until at least the day of the twins' actual birth, even if it didn't happen right on schedule if they had their way, but all three mothers present decided otherwise.

Tenten took Kyomaru home and then returned to drag Lee, and Sai out the door with her. Tsunade kicked Kiba and Akamaru out when they got into showing off for the kids, but insisted Hana stay since they would need an extra guard for the grounds. Naruto and Neji were asked to join her in that area while Tsunade, Kakashi, and Tenzou took care of things within the house itself.

First and foremost was keeping Sakura off her feet, and the only one not suitably frightened by Sakura's temper tantrums was Tsunade, so that job was left to her. Yashu and Tenzou stayed with Tsuyomi, Akaiko, Itachi, and Obito to keep them busy and away from Sakura's general area unless she asked for them. Kakashi went about maintaining the security of the house itself through traps on all areas the kids stayed out of but infiltration was still a possibility for attackers. Mostly, these were on the second floor where Tsuyomi was the only one of the children allowed seeing as he was already seven-years-old and capable of watching his step better than the three-year-old triplets.

Once the children were in bed, a watch consisting of Naruto and Neji settled for outside, and Kakashi's part finished inside, things calmed down and the adults besides Yashu and Sakura went over strategic defense systems of the entire house and surrounding area. Kakashi remembered to mention the swamp this time, even though it hadn't been raining too heavily lately.

"And what if _he_ decides to show up again?" Tenzou asked pointedly. "It didn't take long for him to find out the first time. Who's to say he isn't watching right now? What should our course-of-action be then?"

Kakashi and Tsunade understood why Tenzou wasn't being open about the fact that any other day Sasuke would be told to sit and wait at home...maybe the children would be born there instead of at the hospital this time? That was why Yashu had been trained as a mid-wife, after all. Still, Hana and Neji wouldn't take well to the idea of allowing Sasuke in the area, and Yashu would have a fit, too, most likely. Naruto would get in the other man's way wanting to catch up or something, which would only end up in a half-hearted fight between them.

Half-hearted fights between them would get rough-enough to draw quite a lot of attention. More attention meant more danger to Sasuke and his children.

"Who?" Hana asked, confused.

"Their father," Kakashi spoke pointedly, only to receive dirty looks from mother and son across from him. "What? She'd figure it out really quickly the moment he did turn up anyway and we all just let him walk right in, right?"

Tsunade and Tenzou mirrored each-other with a sigh, shake of the head, and look back over the hastily drawn blue-prints of the house.

"Wow, you'd think you two are related or something," Hana teased, not knowing she actually hit the mark dead-on. "So...Isn't Uchiha Sasuke their father? That's what Kiba-chan told me."

"He is," Tsunade answered. "And he's been here a few times already. He also seemed to know when Sakura went into labor the first time and was close enough to show up before they were all out into the world. We're worried he might know again and try another ill-advised stunt of turning into another friendly like the last time when he turned into Sai."

Hana had a very uncharacteristic smirk on her right then. "Yeah, that's something I might do myself, but I'd at least be smart enough to wear something animals like Akamaru and such would be confused by."

"He didn't have to worry about that in the hospital, it's just that--"

"Sai showed up and found me in there looking like him," Hana responded, "holding Itachi and arguing that it really was a good name for him since it was my grandfather's name, too."

Both men and the blond woman gave Hana a look that clearly read "Oh, you are _not serious_, are you?"

"Stole her jacket and shoes," Sasuke handed the items over, now himself before them. "There. As long as Neji and Naruto stay outside, we've only got to make sure that brunet woman over there keeps her mouth shut."

"When will you four stop the huddle and just relax?" said brunet woman called over to them. "You've got Sakura worried there's a problem or something."

"Yashu will tell Naruto," Kakashi reminded.

"I'll tell him myself if she doesn't get to it first," Tenzou added.

"And I'll kick your pretty ass myself if I find out Inuzaka Hana was harmed in any way by you," Tsunade grumbled.

"She's out with Genma at the moment," Sasuke answered casually. "I made sure she was gone before taking her clothes."

Kakashi rolled his eyes. "Lovely. I now have a cross-dressing former student intent on knocking up one of my other old students at every turn and my third one just happy to have it all happen as long as he gets a hug out of the deal every now and then... Tenzou, Tsunade-sama, any time I decide to teach another group just kill me on the spot, will you?"

"Don't worry," Tsunade rolled her eyes, "I will make sure Naruto won't allow the academy to assign you another group ever again. Problem solved."

Yashu stood up with a grumble and stomped over to the four huddled at the other end of the room, "Didn't you hear anything I just said? Don't stress Sakura any more than she already is! Just because it's close enough to the due date now doesn't mean it's good for her or the kids. A rushed labor would only--YOU!"

All in the room winced at Yashu's shrill cry as she pointed an accusing finger at Sasuke. "When? How? Why?"

"Hours ago. Easy academy trick. To be here sooner than last time," Sasuke answered her unfinished questions with ease.

"Stop it, Uchiha, you're gonna scare us next," Tsunade looked at him sideways. "From what I hear, you've never said so many words together in public at once before."

"Not like you were gonna answer her or anything," he shrugged, and backed off the floor plans between them all before brushing by the still sputtering brunet to sit beside his lover on the sofa.

Sakura barely noticed the presence beside her, instead focusing on just keeping her cool while the others huddled up and left her out of the loop for the first time in years. When a hand started running fingers through her hair, she figured it was either Yashu again, or Tsunade had come over signaling the end of the huddle. She'd never been that close to Hana, so that woman showing the current amount of affection was out of the question. Tenzou was closer to her kids than to her, as was expected considering the fact that he was usually kept busy anymore except when able to get on her baby sitting roster. Kakashi might have shown that kind of affection if they didn't have an audience to prove he had a soft side to him for something other than porn and puppies. So, Yashu or Tsunade, she guessed.

"I'm alright," Sakura muttered to the person behind her. "Just let me rest right now, kay?"

"Of course, koibito," Sasuke whispered into her scalp, startling her far worse than he had Yashu.

"What the--?" Sakura jerked away as quickly as possible, eyes wide as she nearly fell off the sofa edge.

Five sets of hands were grabbing for her instantly, and she found herself supported by Yashu and Sasuke more than anyone else as the first wave of unease passed through her abdomen. "Chikuso! Now look what you've gone and done to me!"

"Sakura?" Yashu questioned hesitantly.

Sakura rolled her eyes, annoyed. "It's starting. Now."

"I told you not to upset her!"

.

.

.

.

"I wanna see Kaa-san," Akaiko pouted at Tsuyomi the self-imposed door guard for the triplets.

"No, Akaiko-chan," Tsuyomi made hushing motions, speaking softly. "We can't go out there. They'll be mad at us. We're supposed to be sleeping, remember?"

"But you could hide us, Nii-san," Obito spoke up.

"Yeah," Itachi added, "you go to school. You know that, right?"

Tsuyomi's brow twitched. Of course he knew he went to school. He hated that fact. It was too strict and didn't allow him much free time at all when the sun was up highest in the sky and the water would feel really good on his feet in the stream...

"You're all too loud," Tsuyomi lied. "I can't hide loud-mouths like you."

The four of them heard a commotion in the living area, even though there was a den between the triplets' bedroom and the place where their mother sat. Seconds later and they heard all the adults moving into the bedroom, and it sounded like two of them were guiding Sakura in there.

"Shh! Let's just listen and see what we can figure out!" Tsuyomi told them, cracking the door just slightly as all four of them huddled around it.

"Kakashi, cover the second floor as planned," Tsunade's commanding voice floated to the children's ears clearly. "Tenzou, I guess you'll be watching things up there with him instead of watching the kids thanks to our identity switch earlier..."

The kids' minds ran wild with questions as to what the old woman meant by that. Then, they got their answer when she spoke again.

"Sasuke, I'm going to count on you to help Sakura through this and follow Yashu's every order," Tsunade spoke, irritated in the change of plan. "It looks like I'm taking Hana's spot in keeping the children out of the way since you fucked things up for the plan. I don't have to tell you what kind of vengeance Sakura will bring your way if you fail her and Yashu, do I?......Good. Now, come with me out of here so that I can give you the basics......No, she won't get to that part for a while yet--"

"Scratch that, she's there already!" Yashu called out, slightly panicked.

"Damn you, Sakura!" Tsunade spoke up again. "Be a little louder for once, will you? Kakashi, Tenzou, take up positions in the hall and the next room. Sasuke, get your ass over there to catch your children. Yashu stay on her. I'm going to get the others to change locations."

Loud footsteps and two slamming of doors later, the kids could hear their mother grumbling and moaning with sharp, hard pains as Tsunade argued with Naruto in the living area and ordered Neji to keep an eye on him before she returned to the master bedroom. None of the silent four dared make a noise seeing as Tenzou was standing right next to the door. If he suspected a thing, especially if Tsuyomi went and actually moved the door again, they'd be in very big trouble.

All their attention on the sounds coming from across the hall, Tsuyomi barely had time to notice the hand reaching for his neck from behind. In a single spin, the blond boy blocked the hand with his right arm, grabbed the larger wrist, and came around with a hook punch to the attacker's jaw. It wasn't enough to do any real damage, but it got the man's attention quickly.

The three between Tsuyomi and the door all fell into the hall a second later when the larger person Tsuyomi had hit shoved him into them roughly. Tenzou caught sight of the three youngsters as they picked themselves up off the floor and briefly wondered if Tsuyomi had shoved them out when he found them peeking or something. That all stopped when he saw Tsuyomi fly out the door and hit the opposite wall face first, yelling all the way until the wind was knocked out of him.

The triplets started to make their way over to weakly protect their brother, but Tenzou stepped between them and the dark room they were supposed to have been sleeping in, creating a much larger barrier between the four kids and danger. He didn't bother asking pointless questions of identity and objective. The objective could be easily guessed. The identity could be sorted out after things were finished.

"Now why is it that the Hokage, his old team, and a couple others are hanging about this old place so late at night and not sleeping?" a dark haired man demanded as he stepped into a sliver of light for Tenzou to see. "Why is my aunt's old house starting to fill up with strangers? Unless some of you actually do belong here?"

Tenzou caught the pointed look directed at the children behind him, and the comment of the man's aunt having once owned the place was noted doubly. "Tsuyomi, get them in with Sakura. You're all safest there."

"Oji-san?" Akaiko asked nervously.

"Don't distract him, imoto-chan," Tsuyomi herded her and her brothers before him. "Want me to tell Tou-san, too?"

"No. And don't tell anybody in there either. Just Neji and Kakashi, please."

"Hai," Tsuyomi nodded, knowing any other questions would have to wait for later. Right now, the fighting was about to start, and he had to protect the others like Yashu had told him when they were babies.

.

.

.

.

"What are you four doing in here?" Yashu demanded from Sakura's side when the door opened to admit the children.

"Be back soon, Kaa-san," Tsuyomi said instead, then walked right through the wall to his left and alerted Kakashi to join Tenzou.

"Well, you three?" Tsunade picked up where Yashu left off as another round of contractions took away the other three adults' attention.

"Somebody hurt Nii-san," Akaiko again spoke for her brothers. Tsunade thanked whatever gods were listening that Sakura, Sasuke, and Yashu didn't hear her. The women would be furious to find out their son was harmed. Sasuke was a wild card to her. She didn't know if he would ignore the situation in favor of Sakura, or if he would storm out of the room to defend Naruto's son on the spot. There was just no telling.

"Lovely," she rolled her eyes. "Is he okay?"

"Hai," all three nodded.

"Then shut up about it and keep out of the way."

Yashu was encouraging Sakura to push harder now, faster. The first child was crowning, a head of black hair--lighter than the identical boys sitting off to the side in confusion--was just visible in Sasuke's hand as Yashu guided him in holding the baby steady.

.

.

.

.

"I don't want anything more than to pay a little visit to my brother's grandchildren," the man still standing in the triplets' bedroom spoke softly. "I will not fight you both."

"Ten, you already know what I'm thinking, so just get it over with," Kakashi said when he recognized the voice. "Capture and return to prison."

"Hai, senpai," Tenzou stepped forward, prepared to trap the man before them in heavy wooden shackles, only to find himself thrown back nearly as easily as Tsuyomi had been a few seconds before.

"Let me clarify," Danzo walked into the hall now, "I will not fight you both at the same time. You'll die too slowly if you get the chance to team up."


	12. Protective Measures

"What's happening out there?" Yashu demanded the moment Tsuyomi was back in the room. "And what happened to your head? You've got an ugly bruise."

"Someone threw me across the hall," Tsuyomi answered, glowering.

"What? Who?"

Tsuyomi seemed to just then realise he'd answered that question out loud. "I--Tenzou-san told me not to tell anybody in here."

.

.

Outside, Naruto had come back around to the roof over their heads, wanting to see if Neji had any thoughts on why the night was so quiet on their end. What he found, however, was the Hyuuga locked away in his own mind...in a genjutsu so strong even he--Neji--couldn't struggle through it, let alone block it.

Not really caring at the moment that Sakura would probably have his head for this, Naruto gave the signal that alerted six ANBU teams to flood the house and six others to search the immediate area. Of course _that_ was the same instant somebody got thrown out of a window.

.

.

"Chikuso!" Kakashi moaned as he shook bits of broken glass from his head and re-orientated himself to see Tenzou just before the shattered window was walled up by hard oak timbers to prevent Danzo's pursuit.

"Kaka-sensei?"

He looked up to the roof above where he had been tossed out of a moment before to find Naruto looking down at him, two others flanking him in full ANBU gear. "How many more men did you bring?"

"Enough," Naruto flashed a small smile, "for Sakura to kill me later."

"You'll need them all."

The oak crumbled and fell in a pile of ashes as Kakashi spoke those words, revealing a kind of dog pile in the bedroom he'd flown through. Naruto was first through the opening to see the situation in its entirety.

Tenzou was flat on his stomach, pinned down by Danzo whom held a senbon to his temple. A third figure--a woman by the slight curves and overall size--was on top of Danzo's back, grappling for the senbon while three other men stood around ready to fire off different jutsu the moment Tenzou was cleared of the senbon.

"Ino, get off of him," Naruto commanded, and knelt down at the feet of the two struggling men as the woman on top did as she was told. He had to avoid the kicks now, but he kept grabbing for the man's legs until one of them was caught. Not a moment too soon, Naruto touched Danzo's left leg and pumped red chakra inside...pure poison to anyone but himself.

.

.

"Naruto you bastard!"

Sasuke held back a sigh, as the rest of the room winced. At least she wasn't cursing his name now. Then again, he really couldn't take much time to be happy about that fact, seeing as the ANBU duo standing across from him didn't look to happy at the moment.

"Sakura, not so loud please," Yashu grimaced.

"To hell with it, just alert the whole damn village what's happening, why don't you!" Sakura continued to rant between contractions as the second child began it's way out into the world. "Oh, shit! Why does this hurt _more?_"

.

.

ああああああああああああああああああ

.

.

"We should move them to the hospital, it's easier to defend."

"There's too many people in and out of there on a daily basis. Here, we know every face that is friendly."

"But at the hospital they'll have a permanent--"

"I'm not going to let the triplets be taken in by the Hyuuga for any length of time."

"Believe me, Sasuke, neither would I. Hiashi still wants my son, remember?"

"She is _not_ going to the hospital."

"She's _not_ staying here."

Sakura's eyes fluttered open finally. She had listened in on the conversation for a few seconds, but her eye lids were just too heavy to move up and get a clear view of the arguing men not far away.

"I'm definitely not going anywhere that doesn't have _all_ my babies in it," she spoke up for herself now.

"Go back to sleep, Sakura," Sasuke knelt down by her side and pulled the fresh blankets back up over her shoulders.

"It's hard to sleep with you two arguing not but five feet away from me," Sakura grumbled.

"I'm sorry," he kissed her temple. "We'll talk about it in the morning. Okay?"

"Stay with me..." she whimpered softly.

"Just let me talk to the others in the living room for a bit. I promise I'll be right back in here."

Naruto watched with a secreted smile. He was so right! Sasuke really was just a big softy underneath it all. The evidence was right infront of him as Sasuke gently cupped Sakura's cheek and softly kissed her again. When Sakura was sufficiently pleased to let go of Sasuke's wrist, the raven haired man's mask of hardness fell back into place once more. Naruto was still smiling a shit-eating grin when Sasuke passed by him and out into the hall with a pointed look.

"Don't say a word, Naruto," he stated dully.

Naruto just shook his head and followed Sasuke back through the hall and into the living room.

.

.

ああああああああああああああああああ

.

.

Sakura cringed when she realized where their small group was headed. As the old barn came into view, she just knew she'd have to chew out whichever idiot suggested this kind of move. What about the health of the children? Especially the babies? The house was all broken down last time she saw it, and what about all the openings the barn must have so long after last being visited?

"Don't worry, Sakura-chan," Kakashi said lightly. "Tenzou and I came back and fixed up the house and barn. Naruto even managed to talk Choji into helping out with supplies. I doubt you'll be hungry."

"And what about the fact that the people masquerading as dead Sand-nin? You expect me to fight them off on my own, too?"

"Who said you were doing this alone?"

"Well nobody said they were staying with us."

"That's because the people staying here will be from Sand, mostly."

Sakura's eyebrows shot up. "So, they'll know right off?"

"And they don't have as many prejudices against Sasuke," Kakashi nodded, "seeing as they don't have full knowledge of all he's charged with."

She still didn't like it. Because of ever being in this damn area in the first place, she now had an almost constant limp. True, it was hard to notice for those who hadn't known her before the injury. True, she could now fight just as hard as she did before hand. Only, it had taken her quite a while to get back the agility and endurance Karin had robbed her of back then.

"Oh, and it's a family, too, that you look enough alike that you could be related to them and just visiting," Kakashi continued. "It took some convincing on my and Tsunade's parts, but Naruto did agree on whom to ask for."

"And Gaara loves Naruto too much to refuse him," Sakura answered knowingly. "He and Naruto are the way Naruto wanted to be with Sasuke in the first place."

"Give it time, Sakura. Naruto will come to understand he really can't have it all."

"And Sasuke?" she asked, shifting the newborn in her arms a bit. "What happens if he can come home?"

"What do you mean?" Kakashi asked, not really understanding.

Sakura looked back at the path before them, "I don't want to mary him or anything like that. I just want him to have a way back...that's why I haven't stopped letting him in my bed. It's just to have the kids that can bring him home."

"Do you care about your children?"

Sakura stopped dead in her tracks. "Of course I do! They _are_ my _children_, Kakashi-sensei! They mean more than...than...anything ever has. Even my life as a kunoichi. I gave that up for them twice now, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat if I found out I was pregnant tomorrow!"

Kakashi just smiled at her then. "Then I'll forgive you."

"What?" she looked like he'd just doused her with water right after slapping her.

"In all reality," Kakashi took a step back so as not to crane his neck down to see her clearly, "it looks to me like he's just using you again. He's pretending to care for you so that you'll be his little brood mare and secure him a place back home."

Sakura nearly laughed at that this time. "You're wrong, and for once I'm right about that. He does care about me this time. I think he'd even like the kids if he had enough time with them. I'm the one who doesn't have any romantic love involved. I see it as more of a favor to Naruto and a way to occasionally have a good night in. Honestly, he still does turn me on completely, but that's only physical."

"Don't you intend to make him own up to his responsibilities as their father? Money and housing are never going to add up to what you've given these kids."

"He's given us what he can."

"That's not an answer."

"I'm not going to answer that to a man who has no children and barely ever knew what it was like to have a parent!" she spat at him before following her running first-borns onto the farm's official property.

Deep inside Sakura felt that the horrible truth was that her children would never know their father as anything more than a brief visitor that paid them no attention and kept her from them at random moments in their lives. He would come and go, and occasionally give them another brother or sister to hold her back until the council finally decided to just kill him and be done with the whole mess. They would only know what Iruka had told her once about being put into the village history books about the Uchiha Clan...That he was a sole survivor (lie!) who abandoned the village in search of the slaughtering brother (partial lie) and joined Akatsuki when revenge for his parents wasn't enough (mostly lie).

She felt that, once any one of them was able to use even the base mode of their father's blood trait, they would be watched closely and kept under the council's thumb their whole lives. One misstep and they'd be attacked almost as severely as their father, and they wouldn't understand why. They wouldn't be told the truth of their family history, the one Itachi and Sasuke both fought to keep clean according to official public records, the history that actually tore the once happy brothers apart forever.

And Sakura knew, no matter what happened, she would not be able to stand up for them. She would be dismissed as insanely obsessed with Sasuke, unable to see his faults due to delusions the Uchiha had made her to believe or some other nonsense like that. She couldn't really save any of them, especially their father. She really was one flimsy safety net for him, especially since she no longer felt like she really would do anything for him. She realised she couldn't do anything for him even if she really wanted to try.

"Sakura?"

A hand was on her shoulder, thumb rubbing at her neck gently. She hadn't even realised her knees had hit dirt until opening her eyes then to find she was kneeling several yards from the barn, baby still sleeping in it's sling peacefully even though her tears were flowing down onto it's clothes.

Looking up, she saw the very person plaguing her mind before her, her three three-year-olds clinging to his pants as if they already understood his role in their lives.

"I cant, Sasuke," she shook her head, looking away quickly. "I can't do it. I can't save any of you."

"What are you talking about?" he asked, confusion evident in his voice only because he allowed it. He knew she needed to hear it to know it was ever actually there.

"Were are the people from Sand, Sasuke?" Kakashi's baritone broke in, sparing Sakura.

Sasuke turned a frown to the older man, "What did you do to her?"

Kakashi now knew the look Naruto had once described to him about a year after they were all put together as a team. When Sakura was knocked out protecting them, Naruto said, Sasuke had lost his cool completely and tackled three enemies on his own when he saw her hurt, but not after making sure she was safe with Pakkun. Damn his memories, but Kakashi now thought that Sasuke had actually cared all along...more than he himself would admit to anyone.

"That's between her and I," Kakashi replied anyway. "Are the others here yet or not?"

"They're finishing things inside," Sasuke grunted before turning a softer tone back to Sakura again. "Come on. There's food already waiting."

"Just give me a minute," she sniffled, pulling herself back together for the sake of the men and her children. What good was a sniffling woman in a situation like this? None. Ever. Just added baggage that would only get in the way.


	13. Mommy, can I get a hair cut, too?

Well, yes, there are quite a few problems not showing through yet. Honestly, I'm just trying to keep things somewhat close to how they MIGHT end up in the manga.

I'm following Sasuke's end more than anything, and that's been slow to come to a head after the whole thing with Itachi.

Now we're getting somewhere with Danzo.

So that means I can do a bit more guesswork and make better chapters for you, even though it's taking longer.

This is just a bit of hinting more at the fact that I think Danzo is Madara or very close to him as well as setting up another position in which Sasuke could fail miserably.

Thank you all for being so patient with this story! It means a lot to get your feedback, too!!!!

* * *

Things were a bit stiff between everyone present at the old farm for the first few days, especially between Shikamaru and Sasuke. Not many people could blame Shikamaru, though. After all, it had been under Sasuke's orders that Juugo had practically killed Shikaku--Shikamaru's father.

"For the last time, Shikamaru-san," Sasuke grit his teeth, "I did not know what had happened!"

"Liar," Shikamaru spat at the man's feet. "You had to have known! That's why he recruited you over to Akatsuki after Itachi died in the first place! He wanted your help in taking over Konoha the moment Tsunade-sama was out of the way and Kakashi-sama couldn't be around to take over for her. You fought on the wrong side willingly just for that damned Uchiha pride!"

"I was fighting for the only family I knew I had left!" Sasuke shot back.

"And against the woman you now profess to love? I doubt both are true."

Sasuke let out a low growl but turned away and walked out towards the barn instead of continuing the argument. He knew better than to let it get up to a point of yelling. Yelling would frighten the children--his and Shikamaru's--and stress Sakura. A stressed Sakura with little to no sleep each night was a scary thing he did not want to experience again, though he and Naruto did on a few occasions as teenagers. Add children to the mix and cause and she'd certainly kill someone--possibly him--if he upset her any more.

"Shikamaru, what are you doing?" Temari questioned harshly when the wooden and screen door slammed shut behind Sasuke's back. "We weren't sent here to goad him into loosing his temper."

"Nobody ever said he would be staying, either," Shikamaru sneered as he kept his eyes trained on the Uchiha that was carefully measuring his steps through the grass. "It was never stated that this was the place he's been living and we were expected to be friendly to him.

"Temari, he tried to kill my father right infront of me just because his bastard great-grandfather told him he would fix Konoha and make it what it should have been... The bastard ordered our village to be taken out and innocent lives lost just so that he could take control and fuck up everything with every ally we ever had! Sasuke let himself be used and loved every second of it! All for _power_."

"But Danzo--Madara...which is it anyway?" Temari asked off handedly. "Either way, he's been taken care of now. Hasn't he?"

"No," Shikamaru shook his head. "Kakashi-san told me what happened when Sakura had those twins. Danzo got loose, but they still won't allow him to be executed...just because they're afraid it might bring Sasuke back at their necks. Fucker."

"Be mindful that there are children present in this house!" she shouted. Since their son's first word was "shit" thanks to her own rotten mouth, she had been on a mission to clean up both of their vocabularies. "But you're right. I don't like it either. Whose side he's really on...it's hard to tell."

"That's the thing, though," Shikamaru turned around to face her. "He's on his own side now that nobody's around to string him along into anything else, and he doesn't know what to do with the freedom except rebell against everybody else that used him in the past...including Konoha."

"But he chose to become a shinobi, just like you did, right?"

"Not any more than you did," he answered with a sigh. "The decisions of our parents and how we tend to look up to them when we're young...it determines much of our future personalities. Sasuke became a ninja because his father and brother were. He wanted to be better than his brother, and be looked up to like his clan did to his father. And with both of them tuning out to be betrayers... He fated himself to be just like them."

"I refuse to believe that," Temari said, walking up to him and forcing a hug on him which he reluctantly returned. That was how she knew he had the fight taken out of him. He only ever completely refused to hold her when he wasn't able to bring himself to back down. This time, he would let things drop. Peace would temporarily be restored to the household.

Temari continued once Shikamaru put his cheek on her head, "Gaara only ever wanted to be loved by our father, same as Sakura said Sasuke wanted from his father, and he looked up to Kankurou and I all the time, but we were hateful. It took that Uzumaki to straighten him out in the end. What if Sakura's patients and willingness to still be there for him can bring him back to what he would have been if life had been better for him in the past? He could become something so much better than the betrayer you know him as. He could change even in your eyes."

"Never in my eyes, Temari," Shikamaru answered ruefully. "It's hard to forgive a man that holds a blade to your father's throat."

"Gaara killed our uncle, remember? And that man was more of a dad to us than our father ever was."

"We already discussed that. It was self-defense."

"It doesn't change the fact that he took away the one person that could get all three of us in a room together and not allow us to be at each-other's throats."

.

.

.

.

"Kaa-san, why don't Usagi and Nami do anything besides sleep and eat?" Obito asked, coming down from the bail of hay to where she sat with the sleeping twins.

Of course, Akaiko had to be heard as well, "They poop and pee, too, you know."

Sakura held back a snort at that. "So do you, chibi."

"But we know how to use a bathroom!" Itachi added before his brother could open his mouth.

"But why, Kaa-san?" Obito asked again, leaning over his baby sister, Nami.

"Because they're doing a lot of growing right now," Sakura answered for them. "They've never been outside of a warm, wet place, too, and it's a little hard on their systems to get like us. That's how babies are. Just wait, in one year from now, you'll be able to play with them and start teaching them to be like you. They'll walk and talk, and eat something other than milk... They'll be taller, too. Then again, you'll be taller when that happens, too!"

Obito backed off a bit when his mother ruffled his hair playfully. "Don't!"

Sakura hummed, "You and your brother are about due for a trim, looks like."

"But my hair sticks out all over when you cut it!" Itachi grabbed his dark locks possessively.

"It looks cute that way," she answered. "If you'd just hold still long enough, we could style it and make it look good."

Akaiko dropped down to stand between her brothers and get in on the conversation again. "Can I get my hair cut, too?"

Sakura looked at her in confusion. "Why would you want to do that?"

"I want to have hair like yours," the girl replied matter-of-factly.

"But I had long hair for a long time," Sakura told her.

"But you have short hair, and it's really pretty, and Hayai said he likes girls with short hair because they can fight better."

Sakura nearly gasped. No, it couldn't be... Definitely not this early. Right?

"I'm going to mary him like his mom married his dad," the three-year-old kept on going, much to the disturbance to her brothers and mother.

The boys made gaging noises and wandered off back to the hay bale as Akaiko continued on with fanciful things far beyond her young mind's ability to fully grasp.

"Akaiko-chan, sit down for a minute and listen to me," Sakura took her daughter's hand and gently pulled until the girl did as she was told. "I didn't think I'd tell you any of this until you were a lot bigger, but I want you to know now, okay?"

With a question in her brow, Akaiko nodded anyways.

"Don't change how you look just because you think a boy will like you better for it."

"But Hayai says--"

"No, chibi," Sakura held up a finger. "I did a lot of stupid things for a boy long before your were born. In the end, I missed out on a lot and didn't grow up like I should have. And neither did my friend who liked the same boy. It made us fight each other all the time, and it only hurt us in the end, even when she grew her hair back out and I kept mine short. It made us not like each other, and we forgot who we were. It was all because of hair."

"So, you don't want me to cut my hair and be a better fighter?" Akaiko asked, completely missing the point.

Sakura sighed and shook her head. "That's not what I meant at all. Oh well, we will cut your hair and see if that makes you any better against your brothers and Hayai, and then you might see what I meant."

"YAY!" Akaiko popped up and ran after her brothers. "Obito! Itachi! Kaa-san will let me cut my hair, too!"

Sakura just shook her head again and scanned over Nami and Usagi again to be sure things were well with the babies before returning to her book. That book was a miracle in her world. It kept her mind occupied and helped her to relax and finish healing up after the birth-and-run only a few days prior.

"So that's why you grew it out so long back then," Sasuke's voice chuckled from the doorway behind her.

"Well, it's gone now, and I'm done with doing things like that just because someone else says I'd be liked more if I did something different."

"That, and I only told her I liked girls with long hair because hers was short and I wanted her off my back for two seconds."

Sakura set the book back down, dog-earing the page. "You got into a fight with Shikamaru again."

He didn't reply. Instead, he sat down with her and played with Usagi's feet as the baby boy kicked to get away from the tickling sensation. The boy's jet-black hair reminded him of his own, but the soft brown of Nami's hair was like...his father's. But when the sunlight peeked through a cloud to grace the children's heads, he saw they both had a soft red glow, just like their brothers and the same general shade as Akaiko's. That was all Sakura's influence, like a visual reminder of her protection.

"You did," Sakura nodded to herself, not caring that he didn't comment this time. "Sasuke, you're still officially labeled as a missing-nin. We're all committing treason to be with you like this, even if it's by the order of Gaara and Naruto. If any of the other Kage found out about this, we'd be forfeiting all treaties and possibly end up in another war. If you make Shikamaru too mad, he might just decide to kill you and be done with it all."

Sasuke looked over at her, her words breaking his train of thought at last, "You know I won't allow him to kill me."

"And you know what he's capable of if he can't kill you," she reminded. "He knows a little of what you've been through. He can use it against you."

"He's better than that. He won't sell me out to another village and risk having them chase me through Fire or Wind. _That_ would start something much more serious."

"He also has enough hatred for you that he just might do it if you keep pushing his buttons like this," she hissed.

He looked back down at the child on the blanket before him. "I don't know what to do anymore, Sakura. I can't just win back my freedom by finding out who the other top enemies are and going after them. It's not enough, and I doubt Naruto can really do much about it even if he wanted to."

"He hasn't tried for a very good reason," Sakura sighed. "He doesn't have a good enough reason to bring before the other three Kage yet. And it would have to be through Gaara anyway. Naruto is... considered weak by more than the council in Konoha. Things are getting a bit difficult with Earth again."

Sasuke waited for her to continue, but she didn't. Instead, Sakura just looked back over to where the three older children tumbled in the straw a few yards away.

"Sasuke, they're demanding one of two things," she said at last. "Your head, of the heads of all your children. They haven't come directly to Naruto about it yet, but they have to Gaara. I wasn't supposed to know about it, but Temari told me anyway. She doesn't want me in the dark when the decision is finally made. It's not like they'll ask me either way."

He looked over to the three tumbling children, wondering at their carefree existence. They were too young to die. Yet, what if they did decide to keep hunting him and he wasn't enough to satisfy their anger? What if he gave himself up and they still wanted his children? He didn't envy Sakura's position. His own was bad enough.

"They'll have to go through more than you to get to the children," Sasuke answered her, meeting her eyes evenly. "From what I've seen lately, you're all that's needed to protect anyone from anything."

There was a time when she would have given everything she had and more to hear him say such words. Now, though, she just didn't believe he could actually mean that.


	14. Hand Over Uchiha

I know this one is extremely short, but so have most of the other chapters been lately. There is a new update on my profile explaining this matter, not to mention the fact that it's getting difficult to write this story and not have it greatly contradict the manga.

* * *

Nightfall came with the lack of stars to light the sky. Instead, a multitude of lightning, and many rumbles of thunder assaulted their eyes and ears.

One particularly close bolt of lightning startled Temari so badly that she dropped a plate she was carrying. The shattering of the china when it hit the floor woke her son who then went running straight into Shikamaru's arms even as he tried to help Temari pick up the pieces of the ruined plate. Hayai's screaming woke up Akaiko, who grabbed Itachi, who jumped up and grabbed Obito.

The twins had been crying the whole time, though. It was their first thunderstorm, let alone one so close by. Sakura was frantic trying to find a way to calm them down, ordering an unwilling Suna girl to follow her example with each change she made, trying to remember what she'd done with her first three to get them calmed down durring their early storms. Nothing short of messing with their systems with chakra was working, and she certainly wasn't going to do that to a baby.

"Oh, I quit!," the Suna girl, Natsu, walked out of the room and shoved Nami into Sasuke's arms. "You're their father. _YOU_ do something!"

When the girl was passed over, she quieted immediately, leaving Natsu, Sasuke, and Sakura all confused. Thus, Sakura began yelling at him.

"Oh, Kaa-san's really mad now..." Obito said, almost conspiratorially, to his brother and sister.

"But why?" Akaiko asked, confused. "I thought she wanted Usagi and Nami to be quiet. Nami is quiet now that Sasuke-san has her. She shouldn't be yelling!"

Both boys were quiet, at a loss themselves. When Sakura handed over her youngest son and walked off in a huff, all three cringed.

"Akaiko-nee-chan?" Itachi grabbed her hand. "Don't grow up like Kaa-san. Please? I don't want another scary woman around."

A shadow fell over them, in the shape of a man. "What are you three doing out of bed?"

All three lashed out at once, startled because they hadn't yet identified the man. Obito kicked at one knee, while Itachi went for a foot, and Akaiko jumped up to try and hit the man in the face. Instead, she ended up being brought up into his arms and tickled roughly, her brothers pushed back to the floor with ease. The man's wet clothing was so saturated that she was soaked by the time he put her down and completely shook off the boys.

"Can I get a towel now?" Kakashi asked, happy that someone had thought to turn on a light when Akaiko shrieked. It revealed his identity and let him know someone was being a bit more watchful around here. Sure, he'd kept himself hidden very well up until that point, but he'd meant to catch someone doing something a bit naughty, and he'd gotten his wish in the form of three peeping toddlers.

But that wasn't the only reason.

"What are you doing here, Hatake-sama?" Shikamaru queried, holding his still crying son close to his chest. "I thought you weren't due for another day, meaning two...?"

"Plans changed," Kakashi straightened up. "You and your family, along with all the Suna-nin have to get out quickly. The Konoha Council of Elders has sent out a group of old ROOT ANBU to check the area out at dawn. Leave no trace."

"Why are they still using them?" hissed another voice, trying not to shout and wake the babies again, or startle Hayai once more. "I thought they were all being kept under very close watch after the things Sai revealed once his seals were removed."

Kakashi nodded, "Yes, that's true, Sasuke. They're being watched by fifty more ANBU that I trained alongside. I went ahead as a scout, so I know where they're camping for the night. You won't have long once dawn comes, sunny or not. Leave."

"But he just got the twins to quiet down again," Shikamaru rolled his eyes in annoyance. "And what about Sakura? Who will be here with her when you all come through in the morning? I can't stay, and nobody from Suna can. Though, you could just give them what they were sent out for and make Uchiha stay. I'll be happier."

Sasuke snapped back at him, "Easy for you to say. You're not the one they want to kill in order to cover up a string of mistakes in the past."

"I didn't give them reason to keep hunting me," Shikamaru spat.

Kakashi stepped in, seeing the coming fight, "Cool it! Now get out of here! There's two teams coming around the back way to take up with her in your place. All of them friends who know what's going on. Now, go."

Shikamaru hugged Hayai just a little tighter and looked over his shoulder to consult Temari in nothing more than a series of looks and small gestures. Though Temari was actually in charge of every Suna citizen, she always heard him out before making a full decision on things like this. Shikamaru wanted to stay, but Temari overruled him. They would all be going.

The two teams were entering the back of the farm house already...but the front door was also opening...

"Matsuri!" Shikamaru whispered harshly, "take Hayai out the window with the rest of out Suna-nin. Quickly!"

"Shikamaru?" Temari looked over, about to object.

"I'm not taking any chances with him," Shikamaru answered.

Sakura looked her own children over. The first lock on the front door was disabled, and the second of three was going pretty quickly. She couldn't hear what the people who filed in from the back were saying to Kakashi, but she knew that if the people at the front really were friendlies, she wouldn't have to wonder what was being said. Hell, they wouldn't be coming through the front door period.

"Sasuke," Sakura turned to him, "go. Take them with you."

"Like hell--"

"They are the future of your clan, Sasuke!" she hissed, wanting to yell but knowing better than to raise too much suspicion. "You can't be seen here in any fight. So, you can take those children with you and let the rest of us sort this out, or you can fight here and risk all their lives!"

One of the people from the back door approached her. Neji's kekke genkai was active. He had to inform them, however, "It's too late for that. We're completely surrounded by Mizu-nin."

"Is there anywhere the children can be kept?" Tenten asked from her husband's side.

Matsuri spoke up, "We can take them to the cellar. It's like a well-house. The spring has a hidden drain."

"She's right," Sakura agreed. "I put the genjutsu over the exit to that drain the moment we found it. They can't have found it yet!"

"And if they did, they'd be burned to death..." Sasuke added, "so how do you expect them to make it _out_ of the drain alive?"

"The secondary tunnel," Matsuri shrugged.

"How will you clear that out?" Sakura queried.

The second lock popped. Both teams that had just arrived were quietly taking up positions near the door.

Matsuri's brother raised a hand, "I can do that."

"It's the best we're going to get right now," Shikamaru nodded. "Go."

"Sasuke, you too," Kakashi ordered.

Sasuke looked down at the tiny faces in his arms. One drooling a little, and the other with a snot crusted nose. There was a time he would have been disgusted and forced them onto someone else to clean up. Now, though, he loved. And he loved that drooling mouth and that snot crusted nose. He made them. They were his to protect. He had to protect them.

"Only for their sakes," he grunted back at Kakashi, then turned his eyes to the triplets. "You three keep close to me. Got it?"

The third lock popped. Matsuri took off with Hayai in her arms. Her brother scooped up Itachi and Obito, one per arm, while Akaiko dashed behind him, her father on her heels with Nami and Usagi secured in his arms. Natsu, the third Suna-nin on Matsuri's team, hesitated. She didn't really want to go with the others, but one look from Temari was enough to light a fire under her ass.

Sakura held back at first. When the door opened, the Mizu-nin stopped dead in their tracks when they saw the Konoha-nin facing them, all nothing but black figures to their eyes except with the flashes of lightning.

"Hand over Uchiha Sasuke," the lead Mizu-nin ordered.

No one answered him.

"We know you're harboring an internationally wanted criminal by the name of Uchiha Sasuke," the woman spoke again. "Konoha has broken its agreement in capturing him, and thus it has fallen from the Shinobi Alliance and is subject to war on all fronts from the Shinobi Alliance. You will hand over this criminal, or we will engage you here, and we will take prisoners."

Sakura chose to turn on the lights. "Take me instead of him."

"What the hell are you doing?" Kakashi demanded. He didn't know what was worse; her showing off all of their positions and faces, or her offering herself up in Sasuke's place. "You can't just--"

"I can," Sakura cut him off. "I am."

The Mizukage herself was standing before them. No one had expected that woman to be coming for Sasuke _here_.

"Haruno Sakura?" the woman asked, just as shocked to be addressed by Sakura as the rest of them were to see the Mizukage among them. "The woman Sasuke has had spitting out his kids for him? What a pleasant surprise..."

"There's a lot of surprises tonight," Sakura nodded. "Like you bringing so many people here to attack us. Sasuke is not here."

"Then why are you here with so many other Konoha and Suna nin?" the older woman asked knowingly.

Sakura already had her answer, "My children are under attack in Konoha. This was the only way to protect them."

"Now why don't I quite believe that?" Godaime Mizukage asked, taking a few confident strides into the room towards Sakura. "Your Kage is known to have hunted down their father relentlessly, but never to kill him like the rest of us have. You were with him most of those times. And, as I hear it, your Elder Council wants to re-develop the Sharingan as their tool again. Seeing as the only surviving official shinobi of Konoha to have the Sharingan is unable to pass it on, and no one has dared take it from him... Sasuke has to be somewhere near here. If he's attentive enough to make the children, he should be around at least a little while after they're born, right?"

"That is not how these children were conceived, Mizukage-sama," Sakura said, still very confident, and meaning her respect for the woman before her. "I am a medic-nin, and many people believe that I have surpassed my teachers. I have other ways of getting pregnant besides the conventional means and conventional medicine. The Hokage's son is a perfect example of that."

"So then, you're going around and stealing the foetuses of women that Uchiha Sasuke knocks up? I doubt it. The girl has your hair, and the boys have a few of your features, too. The Hokage's son has no features of yours. I know that you aren't telling the truth. Where is he?"

"Not here."

"Chojuro," the Mizukage called, "you heard her. She wants to be taken in Uchiha Sasuke's place. Bind her and bring her with us."


End file.
